Being Born Creepie
by DragonShadow
Summary: Growing Up Creepie - Creepie Creecher has always been different from everyone else in the small town of Middlington, she's always known it and she's always been comfortable with it. Now she embarks on an adventure to discover a past that could destroy her
1. Chrysalis

(Author's Notes:

1: Like most of my stories, this one will be updated once a day until completion 18 days from now

2: Take heed, just because this one is child-friendly doesn't mean all of my stories are. Watch the ratings)

**BEING BORN CREEPIE**

Chapter 01: Chrysalis

Another day like any other in Middlington Middle School. Walk through the hallways, find her classes, learn whatever the teachers felt like drilling into the students' heads, and move on for the rest of the day. She didn't even see her friends until she was on her way toward the front door, and she actually hoped that it would remain that way. She wasn't particularly angry at them or upset with them, but tomorrow was kind of a special day for her, and she preferred to spend it at home in the Dweezwold Manor with just her family. She knew if she ran into her red-headed friend, she would demand a celebration…

"Creeeeeepie!" Creepie Creecher winced and let out a soft sigh, resigning herself to what was to come as the sound of rapid footsteps echoed through the hallways. Slowly Creepie turned to watch her good friend Chris-Alice Hollyruller bound down the hallway toward her with her red ponytail bobbing behind her as if caught in a whirlwind. Her boundless energy was apparent in her tireless sprint while the broad grin on her lips, usually a welcome sight, proved Creepie's prior suspicion correct.

"Creepie!" Chris-Alice skidded to a stop in front of her with her hands clasped in front of her. "There you are! I've been looking for you all day!"

"I've been here all day." Creepie couldn't help a wry smirk. "Hello, Chris-Alice. What can I do for you?"

"You can come to my house tomorrow for your big birthday blowout! Woooo!" Chris-Alice leapt into the air as if waving a pair of pom-poms over her head while Creepie sighed inwardly. "I can't believe you didn't tell me tomorrow was your thirteenth birthday! The big one-three! This is huge, Creepie! You have to let us celebrate it in style, because without tomorrow, I wouldn't have one of my best friends in the world!"

Creepie rubbed the back of her neck with one hand, the other subconsciously playing with one of her pigtails. "I don't know, I usually like to spend the day at home with my family."

"Trust me, I'll make sure this is a party nobody will want to miss! I've already got it all planned out in my head, and I'm sure my mom will help me make it happen! This is going to be the best birthday you've ever had! Guaranteed or your friendship back." Chris-Alice giggled. "Little joke."

"Heh… heh…" Creepie forced a smile, then took a deep breath and mentally steeled herself for future regret. "Okay, I'll come by… but I can't spend the whole day there."

"No worries, you can leave any time and in the meantime we'll have great fun!" Chris-Alice squealed in excitement and rubbed her hands together. "Now I have to start putting my plans into motion. I'm sure the turnout for THIS party will be huge! You're coming, aren't you Budge?"

Creepie looked behind her with a genuine smile creeping across her lips as she saw her large, but incredibly gentle, best friend approaching with his wide, relaxed stride. "And where might I be coming to, Chris-Alice?" Budge asked curiously.

"Creepie's birthday party tomorrow, my place, two o'clock! See ya there!" Chris-Alice waved enthusiastically and whirled to run away without waiting for an answer. Creepie watched her go, then turned when she heard her best friend speak.

"I couldn't miss your party, Creepie. Why didn't you tell me?" Budge asked.

"I didn't tell anyone. She must've found it in the school records." Creepie waved for Budge to follow as she turned to leave the school, making her way to the sidewalk to turn in the direction of her home sweet home.

"Come to think of it, you didn't tell me when your birthday was last year, either." Budge walked beside her with his bulky arms swinging lazily at his sides. "You don't like celebrating it or something?"

Creepie shook her head and sighed. "No it's… not technically my birthday. I just told the school it was because I needed a birthday to register."

"Really? What day is it then?"

"It's the anniversary of the day my parents found me outside Dweezwold. We don't know my real birthday."

"Oh…" Budge fell silent for a moment, then spoke in a softer voice. "Sorry. No wonder you wanted to spend it with your family. It must be tough not knowing where you come from."

"Yeah well, after thirteen years of not knowing, I've come to grips with the idea that I'll probably never know." Creepie stopped outside the gate of her home and turned to flash her friend a disarming smile. "I'm fine, though. I'm happy here, and I like who I am now, so does it really matter where I came from?"

"Not to your friends." Budge gave her a broad, gentle smile. "If you want, I'll help you come up with an excuse to bail out of the party tomorrow."

"No, I'm sure Chris-Alice will put all her effort into it and I'll feel bad for letting her down by not showing up. I can spend a few hours at her party and spend the rest of the day here, it's not a big deal."

"Then I'll look forward to it." Budge smiled and gave her a friendly wave. "I should get back home and get this homework finished. Tell your parents I said hi."

"Will do." Creepie waved back as her friend turned to leave, then she turned to head into the large double-doors in front of the dusty and decrepit old mansion.

The old doors creaked open and Creepie was instantly met with the smell of dust and decay, a smell that brought a smile to her lips as she slipped her lithe body through the doors and closed them behind her. She could hear the skittering of tiny legs across the wooden floors and ceilings concealed among the shrill chatter of her numerous siblings and cousins, all of whom were darting across various areas of the mansion playing or eating.

She walked heedless through the throng of playful insects, stepping lightly over the ant colony that had taken up residence in the middle of the living room and ducking underneath the moths that were practicing aerial drills on the ceiling on her way to the kitchen. It was always quieter in here, since it was her mother's private sanctuary. Her mother only came in here when she was hungry, and when her mother got hungry, she could be rather scary for the rest of the bugs in the house, despite her policy of not eating friends and family.

"Good morning, Creepie." Her father Vince, a mosquito with blood red eyes, a blue cloak concealing gossamer wings, and a kind smile, looked up from the table where a small bowl of water was sitting in front of him on the table. Creepie didn't see her mother anywhere, and when she looked back at him he smiled and answered without being asked. "Your mother is out rustling up dessert for tonight. Grubs don't catch themselves, you know."

"Not unless they're really depressed, anyway." Creepie gave her father a forced smile and plopped down in one of the dining room chairs, leaning forward with her hands stacked on the table and her chin on her hands. "Dad, I know I always spend my anniversary here with the family… but Chris-Alice sort of invited me to her house tomorrow."

"Why that sounds like a lot of fun." Vince smiled. "Of course you can go. We're always saying you should try to spend more time with your human friends."

"Yeah, I guess. I'd just rather spend it here with you guys. I like it here, and being there with all of them just…" Creepie trailed off suddenly.

"What's the matter, Creepala?" Vince floated up to her and landed on her shoulder, placing one tiny hand against her cheek in concern.

"It just…" Creepie sighed and shook her head. "It's stupid, but it makes me feel like… I don't really belong. Anywhere. With them, or with you guys. It's like I'm human, but… not…"

Her father's voice grew soft. "Creepie, you know better than to worry about what others think of you."

"It's not about what they think of me. It's about what I think of me. I don't even know what I am." Creepie balled up one fist. "Maybe if I just knew something about where I came from…"

"Creepie, walk with me." Vince suddenly took off from her shoulder and hovered toward the kitchen door.

Curious, Creepie hopped down from the chair to follow him through the hallways beyond, her light steps passing across the rotted, creaking wood. Bugs of all kinds and sizes skittered out of the way as she walked past, though she was careful not to step on anyone. Soon he came to a hover in front of one of the bigger rooms in the back of the large mansion and quickly flitted through the keyhole. Being too big for that, Creepie gripped the doorknob and pushed her way inside as silently as she could.

Inside there were dozens, if not hundreds of delicate silken cocoons hanging from the walls and ceilings, so many that the rotted wood behind them was almost completely hidden, making the room look like it was spun entirely from a glittering spider's web. A smile crept across her face as she beheld the beautiful sight.

"Do you remember this room?" Her father asked kindly.

"Yeah, it's the Chrysalis Room." A smile crept across her lips. "Mom set this room aside so all the little larvae can have a safe, quiet place to spin their cocoons and chrysalises. Before I started going to school, I spent a lot of time in here. It was so peaceful."

Vince smiled. "Yes, I remember that. We could barely pry you away to eat. The larvae always liked having you around too, like a guardian. Or a companion." He hovered toward her and landed on her knee while she sat down on the bare floor to stare up at the masses of dangling shells. "I always thought you had a lot in common with the cocoons, and still do."

"What do you mean?"

"Like the bug in its chrysalis or cocoon, you've been changing, but for you the change has been happening for a very long time. It seems like every day you've grown and experienced so much, and very soon now you'll be blossoming into a beautiful moth and taking flight away from your family. Which is how it should be." Vince looked at her, then turned his bright red eyes on the forest of cocoons before them. "You know, many larvae go into those cocoons not knowing how they'll emerge. What color they will be, or how big they will be."

"Sounds scary."

"It is." Vince nodded. "But what is even scarier for them, is knowing that there is no going back. Once they emerge as a moth their days of being a larva are over forever. Looking to the past to see who they were means nothing." He turned his tiny blood red eyes on Creepie again, meeting her gaze with one of his own. "It's what you become that defines you Creepie, who you want to be, not where you come from or what you were."

"It just seems like it would be easier if I knew where I came from. At least a moth knows it was once a larva." Creepie replied. "But I get your point… I'll try to look forward from now on." She smiled. "Thanks for your help, dad."

"Myself and your mother are always here for you, Creepala." Vince floated up to head level to give her nose a brief hug. "Enjoy your friend's party. Spread your wings… a little bit at a time." He smiled.

"I will." Creepie smiled back and watched her father flutter back out of the room through the keyhole.

She started to rise from the floor, but then stopped and looked back at the wall of shells. Paulie and Gnat were often forced to come in here to clean up the old shells, so every single one of them in the room was full of life transforming into the next stage. With a thump, Creepie collapsed back onto the floor and leaned against the wall to watch them idly for the rest of the day, until long after the sun had gone down outside the window. The highlight of her day was the soft cracking of a shell as a new life emerged with painted wings.

TOMORROW: Chapter 02: Birthday Party


	2. The Party

Chapter 02: Birthday Party

She wasn't sure when she'd fallen asleep, the next thing she remembered after seeing the beautiful form emerge from its cocoon was her mother tapping her on the nose. Her eyes fluttered open and crossed to look at the praying mantis standing in front of her with a caring smile and bright yellow eyes. Creepie shifted uncomfortably on the floor and let out a sleepy grumble, at which her mother just chuckled and shook her head.

"Let that be a lesson to you for sleeping on the floor, young lady. You know humans aren't built for this sort of thing." Carolina chided her daughter.

"Guess I just needed to remind myself." With a groan Creepie pushed herself up from the floor and looked up at the cocoons overhead. Several more had opened in the night, lying cracked and empty against the walls in the bright afternoon sunlight that filtered in through the room's sole window.

"Well, if you want to get to your friends' party, you'd better start getting ready. You must have been up late, it's almost noon." Carolina said. "Just because it's a weekend doesn't mean you can stay up all night and sleep all day. Now come get some breakfast at least before you go." She turned to leave the room. With one more stiff groan Creepie rose to her feet to follow her mother through the mansion to the kitchen for breakfast.

On this day every year Creepie always found her mind wandering. She knew her father was right in saying that she was better off looking forward into the future than trying to look into the past, but it was hard not to wonder who her real parents were and why they would drop her off in front of an abandoned building in a small town in the middle of nowhere. It sometimes made Creepie wonder if her parents were like her somehow. Did they know what no other human knew? Did they know how to talk to bugs and live in harmony with them?

The next two hours passed in a blur as her mind focused instead on getting ready for Chris-Alice's party. A short meal of Honeybee cereal was followed by a very short bath and a change of clothing. As an afterthought she decided to don the spider-web earrings she had made at a local fair last year, which dangled limply against the side of her head with a pair of live spiders happily swaying in the breeze while their legs tapped her shoulders. She always promised them food when she wore them, so they were happy to oblige.

No sooner did she emerge from her room fully dressed than she heard the front door creak open and Budge's soft, comforting voice echoing through the hallways of Dweezwold Manor. "I'm just here to escort the guest of honor to her party."

"I'm right here, Budge." Creepie emerged from the back with her quick step, noticing immediately that Budge had a long box tucked under one arm wrapped in glittery silver and gold paper. "I hope you didn't spend too much on that."

"No more than you deserve. Right this way, Creeps." Budge smiled and gestured for her to leave first, but suddenly a tiny orange ball of legs and fur zipped in front of her, the buzzing of its wings accompanied by a frantic yelling.

"Gnat go too! Gnat go too!" Gnat sped around Creepie's head in tight circles.

"Yeah!" Paulie her pillbug brother bounced in front of their parents, spinning out of his rolled up shape to stand upright on two legs. "We should get to party if Creepie does!"

"Now boys, get back here and leave your sister alone." Carolina stepped forward to grab her pillbug son. "You too, Gnat."

"Aww. Gnat party." Gnat grumbled in disappointment and hovered down towards her.

Creepie chuckled and knelt down in front of them. "Calm down guys, I'm not going to be gone all day. I'll just make an appearance at the party, we'll open some presents, have some cake, and I'll be back to party with you like I do every year. Deal?"

Paulie and Gnat exchanged a quick glance, then Paulie crossed his extra four legs and looked up at her. "As long as we get cake too."

"Cake, yum yum!" Gnat licked his lips.

"I'll see what I can do, now if I don't go I'm gonna be late." Creepie stood to leave.

"Have a good time, Creepie, and be safe." Carolina and Vincent Creecher waved after her and watched her close the door behind her.

The afternoon sun was shining around fluffy gray clouds that hovered high in the sky, unthreatening, but definitely promising some rainfall in the near future. Creepie didn't like the rain much, it always leaked straight through Dweezwold and gathered in the living room like it was a giant sponge. There wasn't much she could do about it though, so she shrugged off the impending annoyance and instead turned her focus to the package in her friends' arm as they walked side by side toward Chris-Alice's house a few blocks away.

"Seriously, I hope you didn't spend too much money on that. It's not worth it." Creepie said.

Budge nudged her shoulder companionably. "Come on Creepie, even if it's not your real birthday, it's still something to celebrate, right? Way I see it, it's still the day you were born, just not the day you were… uh… 'born'." Creepie turned her wide eyes on him, under half-closed lids, glaring at him until he chuckled and continued. "Well, if you hadn't been left at that place, you wouldn't have been raised by bugs and you wouldn't be the Creepie we know and love today."

"Wow…" Creepie's eyes widened. "That's very profound. Have you thought about writing a book?"

"Where do you think I got that one from?" Budge reached into one baggy pocket and whipped out a small paperback book titled '_500 Profound Insights and Knock Knock Jokes'_. "Want to hear another one? Knock knock." Creepie just glared at him again until he slipped the book back into his pocket. "Maybe later."

Creepie shook her head. "I just hope Chris-Alice doesn't go overboard with the party." This time it was Budge's turn to deliver the droll glare. Creepie cast her gaze down at the sidewalk in a moment. "Yeah, I know, I'm clinging to a futile hope. It's all I have, really."

They both fell silent as the distant sound of pleasant chimes echoed upon the wind blowing in their faces. At first Creepie thought it was her imagination, but as they kept walking the sound grew louder until she knew it had to be real. It was a merry jingle played on a series of bells to the tune of 'Happy Birthday'. As they drew closer to the sound, Chris-Alice's home drew into the distance and Creepie's jaw opened wide. The entire house was covered with so many balloons it looked like she was trying to make it lift off from the ground, and dangling from the roof was a giant picture of Creepie herself glaring at the camera with a brightly colored cone hat clumsily Photoshopped onto her head.

Creepie and Budge stopped on the sidewalk in front of the house, only able to stare up at it until finally Creepie found her tongue again. "You know what's REALLY scary about this? This is what she does with just one day's notice."

Budge shook his head. "That is creepy…... no offense." Creepie gave him a wry smirk and they both started up the cement path leading up to Chris-Alice's elevated porch.

The front door was already open with a glittering neon 'enter' sign hanging above it, so they made their way inside where the living room was lavishly caked with streamers that hung from every wall and ceiling. Creepie had to admit, the effect would have been pretty awesome if the streamers weren't every color of the rainbow. Paint them all black and silver and it would resemble a spider-web, which would be more her style.

"Creepie! Budge! I'm so glad you made it!" Chris-Alice bounded into the room with a bright smile and warm hugs for them both. "Welcome to the party! You're the first guests to arrive, but I expect the others any time now!"

"I wouldn't hold your breath." Creepie muttered under her breath and wandered a small ways into the room, looking around at the decorations. Her head snapped back when she heard Chris-Alice whispering something to Budge, but she couldn't make out what was being said. Chris-Alice then giggled while Budge walked across the room to place his brightly colored box on a bare spot in the center of the table, where a single other package was already sitting.

"Okay, Chris-Alice, we're here." Creepie blinked at the sound of the voice and turned to see Carla and Melanie standing in the doorway. Carla had her hands on her hips, with a tiny box in her palm wrapped in dull green paper. "You can stop calling us every three seconds now."

"Super-keen!" Chris-Alice jumped into the air and clapped her hands together. "Come in and put your presents on the table! The party will start as soon as everyone's here!" She gestured to the table.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Carla walked past her, then held her cellular phone up to her ear again to chatter excitedly into it. "Did you see the shorts Chris-Alice is wearing? What is she, three years old?"

"Yeah, totally. Hehehehe." Melanie giggled into her phone as they made their way to the other side of the room. Chris-Alice glared after them, but quickly regained her chipper mood when she noticed Creepie looking in her direction.

"What do you think?" Chris-Alice approached her with a broad smile. "Aren't these decorations nifty? I spent all night setting this up just for my best friend!"

"You didn't have to." Creepie flushed in embarrassment. "I would've been happy with a few balloons and streamers."

"Nonsense, you deserve way more than just that!" Chris-Alice turned toward the door and shouted in excitement again. "Great! Our last guests are here!"

Creepie looked to see three kids standing in the doorway. Leading the pack was a pale girl with deep red lips that matched her hair, with a dark, depressing frown perpetually etched onto an otherwise porcelain smooth face. Creepie actually smiled at the sight and rushed to greet the new guests. "Raven, Misery Whispers, Morpheus! Wow, I didn't think I'd see you here."

"Why wouldn't we be here?" Raven glanced around at the brightly decorated room. "Besides the decor, anyway." Creepie held back a small chuckle as Raven and her friends moved further into the house. Morpheus was carrying a rather large package in both hands against his chest. "How've you been, Creepie? Nice and gruesome?"

"Awesomely gruesome." Creepie kept her face straight.

"Wicked." Raven stared back with the same blank face. Chris-Alice watched the exchange from the side, looking utterly confused by the lack of emotion from each of them. Creepie wanted to laugh, but she stopped herself, and instead busied herself watching Morpheus carry her present across the room to the table with the other presents.

Chris-Alice slipped past Raven and Misery to close the front door behind them and turned back to them with a broad smile on her face. "Okay people! Now that everybody's here to celebrate our good friend Creepie-" Creepie had to hide another blush at this. She wished Chris-Alice would stop calling attention to her like that. "We can get this party going, going, going! Wooo!" She let out an enthusiastic whoop and looked around. Carla and Melanie were staring silently from near the small buffet table in the corner, while Creepie, Raven, Misery, and Morpheus just stared.

"Yeah! Woo…" Budge let out another whoop close behind Creepie, then coughed and lowered his arms as everyone turned to stare at him.

"Wait a second…" Creepie looked around the room quickly, suddenly realizing that someone rather important to her was missing from this party. "Where's Skipper? I thought he'd want to be here too."

"Oh, sorry Creepie… he said he had family matters this weekend." Chris-Alice smiled apologetically.

"Oh… okay…" Creepie nodded slowly, trying not to show any emotion despite her disappointment. She hadn't wanted a party, but if she was going to have one anyway she would have liked to have him here…

"Well come on people! We have a tight schedule packed with all sorts of keen activities! If we don't start now we'll never get to them all! Let's go!" Chris-Alice grabbed Creepie's wrist and turned to dart toward the back of the room with her.

The first activity was 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey'. The results were predictably disastrous, though it had its high points. Melanie hadn't even taken a wobbly step before she managed to collapse to the floor and pin the tail on her own butt. The winner was kind of a surprise too. Morpheus had to have some sort of superhuman immunity to dizziness, because no matter how many times they spun him around, he just walked straight to the poster and put the tail right where it belonged.

The second activity was a game of Horseshoes in the back yard, which was actually pretty fun with the winds picking up and the thickening gray clouds adding a lot of extra difficulty. Carla got so frustrated trying to aim and keep her miniskirt down at the same time that one of her horseshoes wound up going straight through one of Chris-Alice's back windows. Chris-Alice looked like she was three seconds from fainting before her mom assured her it was okay. Creepie wondered for a moment what could be next when her friend hauled her back into the living room in front of the house while Mrs. Hollyruller worked on sealing the broken window with some saran wrap.

Creepie grunted as she was shoved down on the thick recliner in the living room. "I bet you've been waiting for this, Creepie. It's time to open your presents! Everybody get your things!" Chris-Alice yelled in excitement while the others filed toward the table where the presents were kept. "You wait right there Creepie. You should relax since it's your special day." She bounced off to join the others at the table. Soon the short line was formed with each of the small groups bearing gifts, with Carla and Melanie being pushed to the front.

"Okay, okay, we're going! Sheesh!" Carla grumbled and stood in front of Creepie, tossing her tiny package into her lap. "Me and Melanie got you this."

Curiously Creepie peeled the paper off of what appeared to be a thin, narrow rod. In fact, it was a pencil. "Um…" Creepie looked up at the girls. "It's a pencil."

"A black pencil." Carla nodded.

Melanie chimed in. "Yeah. We saw it, and we know you wear the same gaudy black dress every day, so we thought you liked black, so we thought you'd like something black."

Creepie just stared at them for a moment, resisting the urge to shove her gift in one of their eyes. "Thanks." She forced a grateful nod.

"No big, happy birthday." Carla waved her off and turned to walk away with her phone to her ear.

"Here you go Creepie! My gift for being such a great, great friend!" Chris-Alice shoved her present into Creepie's stomach so hard she had to spend a moment catching her breath.

Once she'd collected herself, Creepie peeled away the brightly colored paper to reveal a box underneath with a picture of a sleek silver camera on it. "A camera?"

Chris-Alice shrugged with fake disinterest belied by the broad grin on her lips. "Well, I know you like photography, and I know you've been using that old clunker of your dad's or borrowing the school's camera. I thought it was time for you to go digital."

"Wicked." Creepie whipped the camera out of the box and raised it to her eye. The viewfinder immediately adjusted to Chris-Alice's face despite her standing so close. "This thing works great. Thanks so much, I love it."

"I thought you would." Chris-Alice grinned and moved aside so Raven and her friends could approach, with Morpheus once again carrying their present.

"We all went together on this." Misery Whispers told her as Morpheus set the large box in her lap. "It's not even haunted or anything." Raven grumbled something in a harsh whisper an elbowed him in the ribs, silencing him.

Creepie carefully peeled away the wrapping paper to reveal a plain brown cardboard box underneath. Her hands tugged at the edges until she finally pried the tape up enough to get it open and reveal what lay inside. It looked like a lump of cloth with deep black and red lines running through it in a plaid pattern, with whistles sticking out of certain places. Creepie's eyes lightened and a smile tugged at her lips when she realized it was a set of dark bagpipes.

"Awesomely gruesome! My own set of bagpipes!" Creepie hefted the bag into her arms and kicked the box off of her lap so she could set the bag into position and play a brief, somber melody. When she was finished she looked up at her friends with a smile. "Thank you so much! I mean…" She coughed and set her mouth in a grim line to look up at Raven and speak with a monotone voice. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Raven replied with a voice that was equally monotone. "I thought you'd like a set of your own, if you plan to keep playing."

"I do." Creepie nodded. "After all, the Plaid Vapors don't play without a bagpiper, right?"

"Never." Raven agreed, and for the first time since they'd met, Creepie thought she saw something resembling a smile cross her lips. Chris-Alice broke the friendly moment however by rapidly shoving Raven out of the way and yanking Budge up to the chair.

"Sorry, but we're on a tight schedule! We have to eat cake in five minutes and then it's on to Darts!" Chris-Alice exclaimed.

"Hey Budge." Creepie waved.

"Hey." Budge smiled and laid his long box in her lap. "This is from me… obviously."

"Yeah. Hehe…" Creepie chuckled lightly and laid the long box widthwise across her lap. The paper peeled off with ease, and she was relieved when she saw that the box underneath had no tape on it. She lifted the two-piece container open and gaped in surprise when she saw a long dress sitting on the bottom of the cardboard. With a curious gaze she reached into the box and yanked the dress up in one quick motion, letting it flutter into full view in front of her friends.

Carla, Melanie, and Chris-Alice all gasped in surprise as the dress fluttered down in front of Creepy. It was a plain black dress that hung easily ankle length with Creepie's short body, but etched carefully into it in spiraling patterns were several carefully woven threads of silver that glittered in the light, as if it had been woven out of a real spider's web. The webs weaved their way down the full sleeves of the dress to the wrists, and all the way down to the ankles. Not an inch of it looked plain or boring. To top it off, a stiff collar had been sewn into the back of the neck to stick up past her head.

"Wow… Budge…" Creepie found herself completely speechless. Where could he have found something like this? Did he sew it himself? It would have taken forever… "I- I thought you didn't know when my birthday was…"

"Doesn't mean I can't get you something nice." Budge told her. "I'm glad you like it."

"It's…" Creepie opened her mouth again, but could barely think of a word.

Thankfully, Raven spoke before it became too awkward. "Why don't you try it on, Creepie? You can change upstairs."

"What!?" Chris-Alice exclaimed. "But we're on a schedule! Changing isn't on the schedule, cake is!"

Raven glanced at her in exasperation. "We'll eat cake while she changes. Would that satisfy your lame schedule?"

"Yes. Yes it would." Chris-Alice decided after a moment's thought. "But hurry up, Creepie. I want you to get some cake too."

"Yeah… okay…" Still staring at the dress, Creepie hopped up from the chair and made her way up the stair to Chris-Alice's bedroom at the top. She closed the door behind her and dropped the dress on the bed in front of her.

A few minutes later Creepie ran her hands down the dress, smoothing it down across her body as she turned to the full-length mirror leaning against the wall. Her eyes widened when she saw it hanging from her body in an almost majestic manner, the webs shifting in the overhead light, almost like they were changing color before her very eyes. The piece behind her neck was just high enough to be visible over her head and stuck out on either side, framing her face with blackness.

It was so beautiful. It was so dark. It was so… Creepie.

She was surprised to see the world blurring as something began to burn against the back of her eyes. She struggled a moment to figure out what was happening, when suddenly she began to sniffle and felt swift teardrops running down her cheeks to fall to the carpet below her. She raised her hands to her eyes to try to stop it, but she couldn't. She collapsed back and collided with the bed, falling back into its thick folds while her shoulders began to shudder, her eyes brimming with unstoppable tears.

She wasn't sure how long she remained there, but after a time she heard a soft rap on the bedroom door, followed by a concerned voice from beyond. "Creepie? Are you okay in there? You've been gone a while." When there was no response the doorknob turned and the door slid open to allow Chris-Alice to peek inside. "Creepie!?" She darted inside and shut the door behind her, rushing to the bed to sit beside Creepie, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, Creepie, what's wrong?"

"I-I don't-don't kn-know…" Creepie sniffled through her sobs. "Can't stop…"

"Hey, hey, come on, it's okay." Chris-Alice spoke softly as she gripped one of Creepie's shoulders and pulled her up to a sitting position. "So you're a little emotional, that's not a bad thing. I get emotional all the time. I'm so bursting with emotion sometimes I just have to let out a good scream. Why don't you try it? It always makes me feel better."

Creepie sniffled and squeaked a tiny "Eeeeeee…" She fell silent in a moment, suddenly feeling so stupid that she had to chuckle at herself.

Chris-Alice grinned. "See? Don't you feel so much better now?"

"A little I guess…" Creepie raised one hand to wipe at her tears, which were finally beginning to subside. "I was just thinking about… how I've never had this before."

"What do you mean?" Chris-Alice blinked in surprise.

"I've never told you this, but I… I was… adopted." Creepie half-lied, looking up into the mirror. "I love my parents, but I've never felt like they understand me… nobody ever understood me… but the camera, the bagpipes, the dress… it's like…"

Chris-Alice gave her a gentler smile and hugged her from the side, squeezing her tight. Normally Creepie would've objected, but this time she just let her friend hold her for a brief moment. "Yeah, I get it, Creepie. I love you too." Creepie hadn't really been saying that, but she found herself unable to argue the point right now as Chris-Alice moved back. "Now come on, let's go show the others your dress. It's very beautiful."

"Alright." Creepie nodded and took a deep breath as she hopped off of the bed with her redheaded friend beside her. Her eyes were dry now, but there was still something weighing heavily on her heart. This wasn't the time for that, however. There was still too much party to get through.

TOMORROW: Chapter 3: Looking for the Past


	3. Looking for the Past

Chapter 03: Looking for the Past

The next day, Creepie found herself wandering down the sidewalk with her arms swaying at her sides. She hadn't expected to have much fun at Chris-Alice's party, but she had to admit after opening the presents she'd had a wonderful time. She'd even used her new camera to take some shots of her friends being goofy, and her best shot was one of Raven throwing punch on Carla's cheerleading uniform. It had been a good day all around, she mused. Even Paulie and Gnat had gotten their cake since she managed to smuggle some leftovers home.

Unfortunately, the storm clouds that had lingered through most of yesterday remained low in the sky, promising future rain but not dropping any on her for the moment. She hoped it would wait a while, because she didn't want her brand new dress to get messed up. She hadn't removed it since Budge gave it to her except to sleep. She knew she had to wash it some time, but for now she didn't want to wear anything else.

Soon she approached the designated place where she, Budge, and Chris-Alice had agreed to discuss today's activities. It was Sunday, and while tomorrow was back to school, they still had another day's worth of time to kill before then. She approached the Middlington Park a few blocks from the school, and quickly spotted her friends hanging around the monkey bars wearing thick clothes suitable for the cold wind that blew through the small town. Budge was leaning against them chatting companionably with Chris-Alice, who was dangling upside down by her knees so that her ponytail was almost in the dirt.

They both looked over at Creepie's approach. "Hey Creepie!" Chris-Alice waved energetically. "Wow, you're wearing that out today?"

"It's actually pretty warm." Creepie explained as she approached them. With the tight wrist-length sleeves and her tights on underneath, it actually was pretty comfortable even in this weather. "Warmest thing I have in my closet, anyway." She said quickly, not wanting to admit that she just didn't want to remove it.

"Glad it's practical." Budge quipped.

"So, what are we doing today?" Chris-Alice grabbed one of the bars in both hands and flipped upright, her shoes slamming heavily against the dirt before she slipped through the bars to join her friends. "I say we should go to the movies. The theater is going to be showing Iron Man all day, and I hear it's really funny."

Budge nodded. "Sounds good to me. How about you, Creepie?"

"Well, I was actually kind of hoping to get some more shots." Creepie took out her camera and held it between both hands. "I got some good ones last night, but I want to see what this thing can actually do."

"That sounds like fun, we'll help. Hey, maybe I can pose for you!" Chris-Alice struck a pose leaning against the bars and flashing her a cheesy grin. "How's this?"

Creepie chuckled and snapped the picture. The next few hours were spent with the three of them wandering around the city, taking snapshots of whatever caught Creepie's eye. This mostly meant back alleys and a few run down old buildings, but Chris-Alice convinced her to take a few more shots in the park and a few among the trees and flower beds that dotted the city. Budge also had a few suggestions, but his were more to Creepie's liking. His shots involved shots of simple things like a piece of paper fluttering in the wind or a stray cat sleeping beside one of the darker alleys. All in all, Creepie was really pleased with her helpers, along with her new camera.

As the day wore on the clouds overhead got thicker and thicker, and the wind picked up until Creepie found herself shivering. She didn't mind the cold, but the change in atmosphere, along with the friendly demeanor of her friends, soon had her once again on the verge of tears for no good reason. She tried to stop it, she walked toward a nearby alley to try to hide it, but it came anyway and she leaned against the wall with one hand while the other reached up to hide her eyes from her friends.

"Creepie?" Budge's heavy steps stopped right behind her and one thick hand landed gently on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"What's wrong?" Chris-Alice approached her other side. "Is it about yesterday?"

"I've just… been feeling strange lately. I'll be okay." Creepie sniffled and quickly wiped her eyes dry.

"It's alright Creepie, you can talk to us." Budge told her with a kind smile. "We're here to help you out."

"Yeah, that's right." Chris-Alice leaned against the wall beside her, craning her neck down to get a look at Creepie's face. "Talk to us, Creepie."

Creepie took a deep breath and turned away from the wall, leaning her back against it and folding her arms over her chest. "Well, I've just been thinking how I… didn't have a normal family." She glanced over at Chris-Alice, but thankfully she didn't seem to catch on to the deeper meaning of the statement. "I've had a lot of fun today and yesterday… and it just occurred to me that you guys have this sort of thing all the time because you have your parents. Your real parents."

"Well, I wouldn't say our real parents are all THAT great…" Budge chuckled. "They do all kinds of things to annoy us too."

"Oh yes. Yes they do." Chris-Alice narrowed her eyes in a sudden change of mood, then opened them brightly again and nudged Creepie's shoulder. "But you know, if you want to find your real parents, there are ways to do it."

"What?" Creepie's eyes went wide and she looked at her red-haired friend.

"Sure. We could take you to the doctor and have them do some tests. My daddy does it every now and again because he says he wants to make sure I'm really his precious little girl." Creepie blinked and exchanged a quick glance with Budge, but Chris-Alice didn't notice. "So if they can do that for my dad, I'm sure they can find your real parents, Creepie."

"You really think so?" Creepie asked.

"It's worth a shot, isn't it?" Budge squeezed her shoulder tighter. "And we'll be right here with you through the whole thing."

"Well…" Creepie trailed off for a moment. The thought of finding her parents had occurred to her, though she still had misgivings about it. It was entirely possible her parents were gone by now… still, could she pass up this sort of chance when it presented itself? "I guess it couldn't hurt to try."

"Come on." Chris-Alice took her hand with a smile and whirled to rush down the sidewalk. "If we hurry we can make it before dinner!"

The three friends rushed along the sidewalk as the clouds grew darker, and the bitter cold wind began to bring with it tiny rain droplets that fell against their bodies and splashed against the ground around them. Normally Creepie would've sought shelter, she'd learned long ago not to spend too much time in the cold rain, but now she found herself getting pretty excited, and a little nervous. What would she say to her real parents? Would she ask why they left her at Dweezwold? Would she like them, or would she dislike them? Would they even know who she was?

They approached the hospital and ducked into the soft lights in the lobby, finding shelter from the darkening sky outside and the light drizzle that had descended on Middlington. There weren't many people in the hospital. It was a small town and there weren't many accidents on a typical day, so the atmosphere was very relaxed as Creepie approached the counter flanked on either side by her friends. The nurse looked down at her as she approached.

Creepie reached up to rest her hands on the counter. "I need some testing done."

"Here." The nurse handed her a clipboard. "Fill this out and we'll work out the details."

"Great, homework." Creepie sighed and took the clipboard back to the line of seats resting up against the wall.

"Just think Creepie, soon your entire life could change. Ooo it's so exciting!" Chris-Alice jumped up into the seat beside hers, sitting on her knees. "I bet you have a beautiful mother."

Creepie ignored her, trying to focus on filling out the irritating forms and keep herself in check. Her heart was racing just filling out this form. The thought of having a past, a history, was so exciting to her. She wasn't sure it would change her life like Chris-Alice said, though. Still, it was something significant.

When she finally finished with the form she carried it back to the nurse and took her seat in the lobby again, sitting with her arms folded neatly in her lap over her camera. Chris-Alice seemed to be getting bored, fidgeting in her chair, but never complaining. Budge on the other hand had started to busy himself drawing something in a small notepad he took out of his pocket, occasionally looking up before looking at his paper again to resume drawing. When Creepie noticed he was drawing a picture of the nurse, she looked down at the camera and picked it up with both hands.

"Creepie Creecher?" Creepie looked up at the sound of a man calling her name. A doctor whose name tag said 'Dr. Angelo' smiled from near the doorway into the back. "I'm ready to see you now."

"Good luck, Creepie." Budge encouraged her.

"Thanks, I'll be right back." Creepie waved and followed the doctor into the back, through the winding hallways. Occasionally she spotted something that caught her interest enough to snap a quick picture of it in the rooms they passed, though she made sure to keep up with the doctor. Soon he led her into a small examination room, where Creepie jumped up on the cold metal table in the middle of the room and snapped a few shots of the doctor's tools while he closed the door and turned back to her.

"I understand you want a DNA test to find your real parents." The doctor said.

"That was the plan." Creepie replied.

"Well, we can certainly run the test, but I just want to be sure first that you want to go through with this. I know it's a difficult thing to do, and if you want to back out, this is the time to do it."

Creepie didn't hesitate for a second before saying. "I'm sure, let's just get it over with."

"Great." The doctor smiled. "Just roll up your sleeve. I need a little bit of blood to scan." Creepie rolled up her right sleeve and watched him stick a small syringe into her arm to draw the required blood. "Just wait here a few moments and I'll search the database for a match." Creepie nodded and watched him leave quickly into the back room.

Her short legs dangled off the front of the bed as she looked around the hospital room, taking a few more quick shots of some X-Rays that had been left hanging up nearby. She waited for almost thirty minutes, and was thinking about checking to see what was going on when finally the door to the back room opened and the doctor emerged. Something seemed different about him, though. He was fidgeting and refused to make eye-contact with her.

The doctor cleared his throat. "Well, unfortunately the results are a little unclear, so I'm going to have to keep running the scan for a while and call you when I get some definitive results."

"Oh, alright. Well, thanks for trying." Creepie dropped down off the bed, giving him a curious look. "Are you okay? You look a little tired."

"Oh, I'm fine, don't worry about me." The doctor flashed her a disarming smile. "You get on out of here and I'll let you know the results when they come in."

"Sure… okay." Creepie shrugged and left, heading back down the hallway toward the front, muttering under her breath "weird…" She walked down the hallway until she emerged into the lobby where Chris-Alice and Budge were still waiting.

"Creepie!" Chris-Alice leapt over to her the second she walked out the door. "So? How did it go!?"

"Do you know who your real parents are?" Budge walked up behind her.

Creepie shook her head. "Doctor said something was wrong, he'll have to call us once they get good test results."

"Well poo, that's a disappointment." Chris-Alice sighed. "Oh well, maybe they'll be finished by tomorrow."

"Maybe. Come on, it's about time to get home." Creepie walked past them toward the door. They could see a steady rainfall beating against the glass doorway, while the rain-slick streets beyond were barely visible with the sun fading beyond the horizon and the thick storm clouds only getting thicker. The sound of the rain beating against the glass was deafening, and occasionally drowned out by a blast of thunder.

"Soggy muffins, we can't walk home in this storm." Chris-Alice complained.

"Not much choice in the matter. It's not that far anyway." Creepie pulled the door open and stepped outside into the downpour. Her dress and hair instantly got soaked and matted down. Chris-Alice followed her outside, hugging her thin yellow jacket tightly closed.

Budge looked up at the rain, then grumbled something before saying more loudly, "Give me a second, guys, the rain always makes nature call me for business." Budge rushed back into the hospital in search of the bathrooms.

Creepie exchanged a glance with Chris-Alice. "That's okay, we'll just wait out here in the rain and get pneumonia or something." Creepie smirked.

"Let's go wait inside." Chris-Alice turned to head back in, but stopped when a pair of headlights suddenly flooded through the darkness, shining directly on them both. The two girls turned to watch a small black car steadily approach through the rain, the headlights remaining directly on them until the vehicle reached the curb, coming to a quick, bouncing stop. They heard two doors open, and a pair of men emerged, wearing black ponchos to protect against the steady rain.

"Creepie Creecher?" One of them men asked.

Creepie raised one eyebrow curiously and looked up at the man's face as he approached. They heard splashing across the sidewalk as the second man walked slowly around them, standing in front of the door to the hospital. "Yeah, that's me." Creepie replied.

"It's okay, I'm a friend." The man in front of them smiled disarmingly. "If you'll just come with us, we're here to take you home." Creepie's eyes went wide in surprise, and she felt Chris-Alice's hands clutch her shoulders tightly from behind.

TOMORROW: Chapter 04: Dash Through the Night


	4. Dash Through the Night

Chapter 04: Dash Through the Night

The rain pelted down against Creepie's dress, soaking it to her body and making her pigtails droop in thin clumps beside her head. Thunder crashed in the distance as a streak of blue lightning lit up the scene like a torch for an instant, but all of that was drowned out by her frantic confusion at the man who was standing in front of her with a disarming smile. He was holding a hand out to her now, watching her face and waiting for her to go to him. Chris-Alice's hands tightened on her shoulders, clutching her like she would a life jacket in the ocean.

"Come on, it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you." The man insisted with the same kind smile plastered on his face. For a few moments Creepie wasn't sure what to do… but thankfully, Chris-Alice had developed a plan.

"AAAAAEEEEEIIIIIIII!" A shrill scream cut above the sound of pounding rain and distant thunder, and Creepie was suddenly yanked to the side with Chris-Alice, who was now running full speed down the sidewalk. It was a crude plan, but it was efficient, Creepie thought as she began to run alongside her friend. She heard the men shout behind them, followed by their heavy boot steps splashing through the water in hot pursuit of the two girls.

"Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh! Those men are chasing us!" Chris-Alice yelled. "What do we do!?"

"Keep running!" Creepie's short legs sped up until they were nearly a blur underneath her long dress, leaving a trail of flying water in her wake as she gripped Chris-Alice's hand to make sure they didn't get separated. She could still hear the sound of the men's boots splashing after them, getting closer by the moment no matter how fast she tried to push herself. Her heart was racing, she wasn't sure they'd be able to get away.

Suddenly Chris-Alice grabbed a light pole to turn herself down a nearby alley without stopping, holding Creepie's hand to fling her through the air beside her. Creepie's legs caught the wall of the alley, running along it for a few moments before gravity caught up with her and she hit the pavement, once against running alongside her friend down the length of the black alleyway. She heard the men's thick boots skid across the rain-slick pavement as they tried to turn. There was a loud splash, and a glance back showed that one of them had slipped to his butt on the ground. So, they didn't handle rain too well…

"Chris-Alice, follow me!" Creepie jumped at the far wall when she reached the nearest turn, bouncing off of it like a cricket and hitting the ground running in her new direction. Chris-Alice made the turn almost as deftly, having definitely gained some good balance from her years of cheerleading and martial arts training. This time the men slowed to take the turn, but were quickly catching up to them again. Creepie gritted her teeth. These men weren't going to fall for the same trick twice.

"We need to get to a crowded area!" Chris-Alice yelled over the rain.

"How many places are going to be crowded in the middle of a thunderstorm at midnight?" Creepie yelled back.

"I don't know!" Chris-Alice put her free hand to her head. They soon came to a fork in the alley with only a moment to pick a path, so Chris-Alice clutched Creepie's hand and stomped on the ground, sliding to a stop in the slick rain. Creepie, still holding onto her hand in an iron-tight grip, spun around her body from the force of her momentum suddenly finding herself hurtling down the path on the right. Creepie landed on the pavement and yanked Chris-Alice after her again, sending them both hurtling toward the open road, where the glow of the streetlights was barely visible through the intense downpour.

They left the alley and skidded to a stop, glancing back to see the men still struggling to keep up with them. They had gained a good lead, but out here in the open it was unlikely they could keep it up. "Heeeeeeeellllllllp!" Chris-Alice screamed, but her voice was drowned out by a crack of thunder and a flash of lightning striking the ground so close it made her jump and stumble back. They both whirled back to the alley to see the men quickly closing the gap between them, nearly at the main street.

"Nice try. Now let's keep moving." Creepie grabbed her friend's wrist and turned to run down the street with her. The men behind them skidded out of the alley and began to sprint toward them. Their boot steps in the water were louder than ever, getting closer and closer. Creepie could feel the water from the splashes touching her legs. She tried to pick up the pace, but her legs couldn't go any faster. Her mind and heart began to race even faster.

"Creepie! Look out!" Without warning Creepie felt Chris-Alice's hands pushing down on her head. For a moment, it looked like everything was moving in slow-motion, with even the rain hovering in mid-air. The man's broad arms were coming in toward Creepie, coming inches from missing her with her head down. Chris-Alice was leaping over Creepie's body like a pommel-horse with her legs bent inward aiming back toward the man. Suddenly, everything seemed to speed up again.

"Hiiiyah!" Chris-Alice kicked her legs out behind her. Her heels slammed into the man's knees with a solid crack. He grunted in pain and fell forward like a tree trunk as Creepie crashed into the rain-soaked ground ahead of him. The man came down on the street behind her with a splash while Chris-Alice came down on his other side, sliding across the rain for a moment before coming to a stop near the sidewalk.

While the man grunted and tried to collect himself, Creepie could only stare at her friend for a moment. "Whoa." She panted.

"Heh…" Chris-Alice grinned as her chest heaved from excitement and her exertions. "Did you think karate was just to burn off energy?" Her smile faded and her eyes went small as she looked up past Creepie's shoulder. "Creepie, look out!"

Creepie whirled around just in time to see a pair of broad arms begin to encircle her waist as the second man rushed up behind her. Thinking fast Creepie put her hands on the man's solid arms and pushed herself up, slipping through them before they could close on her. She tried to jump off, but the man made a wild grab at her legs and caught her feet in mid-air. Creepie's body swung back and she grabbed his poncho to yank her legs free of his arms and cling to the front of his body, feeling her shoes pop off in order to slip through his grip.

For a moment Creepie found her face inches in front of his. Lightning flashed nearby, illuminating his face as if someone had just taken a photograph. His eyes were open in surprise as his arms clutched at his stomach. In a moment however the light faded as his arms opened again and made a grab for her, but she skittered up his body out of the way as quickly as she could, dangling from his left arm for a moment, then moving up to his head as he made a grab for his shoulder. When he grabbed for his head she slid down his face back to his stomach, then rapidly crawled over his arm to his back.

"You're a slippery little bug aren't you?" The man growled in frustration.

"Yes. Yes I am." Taking the hint from Chris-Alice, Creepie clutched the back of the man's poncho and leg her body flip forward down his back, sending her heels crashing into the back of the man's knees. The man screamed in pain as his knees buckled, sending him crashing to the ground with a splash. For a moment Creepie sat on his back, trying to catch her breath and steady her racing heart, but she was spurred into action again when Chris-Alice grabbed her wrist and yanked her off of the man to run down the street.

"Come on! In here!" Chris-Alice turned them toward the only building with a light visible inside, a small 7-11 sitting on the corner of an intersection near one of the few gas stations in Middlington. They both hit the windowed door at the same time and shoved it open, slipping inside and slamming it behind them. They both leaned back against it with their chests heaving, as if the men were going to try to beat the door down at any second. Creepie closed her eyes, feeling the water dripping from her hair and dress as a slight shiver ran across her body.

"What's going on? Are you two okay?" Creepie opened her eyes as the employee behind the counter approached them with a worried look on his face.

"These two men have been chasing us for blocks." Chris-Alice pointed to the window. The store clerk quickly looked outside as Chris-Alice stepped back, hugging herself and shaking violently. "I've never been so scared in my life…"

Creepie pushed herself off of the door and stood back to let the clerk past, trying not to shiver. The store clerk stared outside for a few moments, then locked the door and turned back to them. "Hey, come on, you two sit down and I'll call the police." He put his hands on their backs and led them to the far wall, where he sat them down on a couple of chairs and turned to rush behind the counter to where the phone was waiting.

As her heart finally began to slow, Creepie cast a sidelong glance at her friend, who was gritting her teeth and holding herself tightly. "You okay?"

"No I'm not okay!" Chris-Alice exploded loudly, then took a few deep, calming breaths before speaking again. "What do you think they wanted with us? Do you think they were…"

"I don't think it was 'us' they wanted…" Creepie narrowed her eyes. They'd known Creepie's name, they had been after her. She didn't point this out to Chris-Alice though, the girl looked panicked enough as it was without adding to it. Still, for the rest of the evening thoughts and fears swam through her mind.

It wasn't all that long before the police and Chris-Alice's parents showed up at almost the same time. Mrs. Hollyruller looked like she was three seconds from tearing straight through the police to get to them, but first Creepie and Chris-Alice had to tell the police everything that had happened. They didn't leave anything out; after all, they hadn't done anything wrong. It had been dark, so they couldn't say much about what they looked like, except for the one Creepie had come face-to-face with. She could remember his face very well.

"Come on girls, let's get you home. It's okay…" Mrs. Hollyruller gripped their shoulders and thanked the police officers for their help before turning to lead the two girls back out to the car, with Mr. Hollyruller fuming and raging outside as if it was the rain's fault it had all happened. The girls said nothing on the ride home, letting Mr. Hollyruller vent his anger and frustration with many choice words that really weren't fit for young ears.

The rain continue to beat against the top of the car the whole way home, and when they got inside Mrs. Hollyruller quickly found them both some robes and towels so they could get out of their sopping wet clothing and dry off. Soon they sat in Chris-Alice's room together, where Creepie sat on the bed listening to the rain pounding on the outside window while Chris-Alice paced around the room as if she were still being chased by some invisible man.

"It doesn't make any sense, I can't believe it actually happened. I mean, sure you see it on TV sometimes but who would really do that? It's so weird, and we were so lucky. Weren't we lucky? What if we'd been caught? Soggy muffins, what if we'd been caught!?" She yelled in a sudden panic.

"Uh, Chris-Alice? Do you think I can use your phone to call my mom?" Creepie asked.

Chris-Alice turned to her as if suddenly noticing she was still there. The bathrobe that billowed around her body brushed against the floor as she moved. "Oh, of course, I have a phone right there." She nodded to the nightstand.

"Thank you." Creepie snatched it up and quickly dialed in her mom's number, raising the receiver to her ear.

"Hello?" Creepie smiled when she heard her mother's voice on the other end of the line.

"Hey mom, it's me." Creepie said softly.

"Creepie, we told you to be home by seven. Where are you?" Carolina Creecher demanded. "We've been worried sick."

"Sorry. I ran into a little problem on the way home." Creepie's voice remained soft. "I'm going to be spending the night with Chris-Alice, if that's okay."

"Huh? Well, it's a little short notice." Carolina noted.

"I know mom, but… I don't want to talk about it right now. I'll tell you everything tomorrow, okay? I just wanted you to know I'm safe."

Her mother gasped. "Safe? Creepie, what happened?"

"I'll see you tomorrow and I'll tell you everything, I promise. Just…" Creepie trailed off, her mind still a jumble as she took a deep steadying breath. Thinking about it was getting her almost as riled up as Chris-Alice. "I love you, mom." Quickly Creepie pressed the end button and let the receiver fall into the blankets sitting on the bed around her, hugging her robe tighter around herself and trying not to think about everything that could have happened that night. She didn't even argue when Chris-Alice plopped down beside her and wrapped her arms around her.

TOMORROW: Chapter 5: Tangled Webs


	5. Tangled Webs

Chapter 05: Tangled Webs

"My goodness…" Carolina Creecher walked across the table toward her human daughter, jumping up on her hand to pat her arm. "It sounds like you had such an ordeal last night. Why don't you take the day off from school today? I'll call Miss Monserat and let her know you won't be in to class." She patted her arm and hopped to the table again to rush toward the phone on the countertop beyond.

Her father hovered up in front of her with a concerned expression on his face. "Are you alright, Creepie? Is there anything we can do to help?"

"Not really, though a day off from school sounds pretty good." Creepie stood up from the table, wearing one of her normal outfits since the one Budge had given her was being washed. It had gotten pretty scuffed and dirty, much to her dismay. "I wanted to go see Skipper today anyway."

"Do you want us to come with you?" Vince asked.

"No thanks, I'll be okay. I can't spend the rest of my life hiding." Creepie turned to walk toward the kitchen exit, heading through the living room to the front door.

"Creepie." Creepie looked back as her mother hung up the phone and rushed up to her, looking up at her. "I know what happened is probably going to take a while to get over… but know that we're so proud of you for keeping your cool and getting away." She smiled up at her. Vince smiled and landed beside her.

"That's right, Creepala, and we'll always be proud of you." He told her.

For a moment Creepie stared down at them, then on a sudden whim, she knelt down in front of them and lifted them both into a tight hug. Their small arms held onto the top of her dress until she set them down again and turned to leave, heading outside onto the still rain-slick sidewalk and turning away from Dweezwold. She hadn't told her parents where she was when she'd been confronted by those men. She was sure they would understand her wanting to know about her human parents, but she still didn't feel comfortable talking with them about it.

It was strange, she thought, how much difference a little time could make. She had to admit, last night she'd been so focused on what happened that she'd been ready to quit the rest of her life for a while. Now though, after having some time to reflect and after the shock of it all had worn off, she really just wanted to see Skipper. Though she wasn't sure if she wanted him to comfort her, or if she just wanted to know why he hadn't come to the party. She should also find Budge sometime today, she realized. He'd been left at the hospital, and eventually called his parents to come and get him.

Her mind turned back to the business at hand as she approached the moderately large mansion toward the edge of Middlington. Being a local celebrity now, Skipper didn't need to live in a trailer and travel with his circus. In fact, he didn't have as much free time these days as she would have liked, but still, Creepie had thought they were close enough that he would make time for something like a birthday party. She had half a mind to get angry, but she kept it in check… for now.

Her hand rapped on the door and she stepped back. It was a few minutes before the door slid open and Skipper's normal, but fairly handsome face peered out at her through the crack. When he saw her waving he brightened and opened the door the rest of the way. "Creepie! Hey, you ditching school today?" He asked in confusion.

"Something like that." Creepie mumbled. "Speaking of ditching, though…"

Skipper blinked, then raised his hands defensively. "Hey, don't go there, I know I missed your party and I'm sorry but I couldn't get away."

"Get away from what?" Creepie asked.

"Well… see for yourself." Skipper stepped aside, swinging the door wide open for her. Curious, Creepie walked into the mansion and looked around. She didn't have to look long before she saw it spread out across the wall on the other side of the spacious living room. Her eyes went wide and she approached the massive egg sack dangling from the wall from many smaller strands of webbing. Some of the eggs deep inside the sack looked like they were moving, but most were still. "I'm going to be a big brother." Skipper told her.

"An egg sack…" Creepie touched the sack with the tips of her fingers. "So this is why you've been so busy, you were babysitting. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want it to interfere with the rest of my life, but I guess I kind of blew that idea lately." Skipper snapped his fingers suddenly. "Hey, wait, I do have something for you, wait right here." Creepie nodded and watched him go, then turned back to the egg sack, running two fingers over one of the thin orbs sticking out between the web's fibers.

"Hey little guy." Creepie smiled softly. "Between you and me, I think you have a great big brother." She patted the egg. "Lucky you." She turned away from the egg sack when she heard soft footsteps approaching from the hallway again.

Skipper rushed into the room with a broad smile, carrying a small box wrapped in deep purple and red wrapping paper. He stopped in front of her and held the box out to her with a formal smile. "Happy birthday Creepie."

"For me?" Creepie smiled and took the box from him. "Thanks." Creepie walked over to the thick sofa and plopped down with the box on her lap. Skipper sat down on the cushion beside her and watched her peel off the wrapping paper.

The paper floated to the floor in front of her and Creepie peeled open the small box beneath, seeing a wide metal bracelet inside. For a moment she was confused, but then she realized it looked similar to part of Skipper's costume.

Creepie looked up in surprise. "Isn't this your web spinner?"

"Nah, I had the special effects guys make another one. That's all yours." Skipper smiled.

"Really?" Creepie's eyes shined as she pulled it out of the box. "Wicked, I love this thing."

Skipper took the bracelet from her to open it at the hinge. Creepie looked up to watch his face as he slid it around her wrist and locked it in place. It fit snugly around her scrawny arm, as if it had been made especially for her. His hand rested on hers for another moment as he smiled at her face. "I was hoping you'd like it."

Creepie flashed him a tender smile. "I do. Thanks."

Skipper raised her hand to show her the web spinner. "Do you want to-"

"-try it out?" Creepie finished for him with a grin. "I was waiting for you to ask." Skipper rose from the sofa and took her hand to pull her up with him.

"My mom won't mind if we go out into the front yard for a while, as long as I don't go too far." He told her. Creepie nodded and walked out front with him, looking down at the spinner as they went. They stopped in the front yard and Skipper soon placed a small can on the white picket fence that surrounded his house, then stepped back and gestured to it. "Just push the button like I showed you. I bet you hit it on the first try."

Creepie raised her right arm and put her left hand on the spinner on her wrist, trying to line up the opening on the top with the can in front of her eye. When she thought she had her shot lined up she pushed the button… and promptly got slammed in the face with a massive pile of sticky goo. Her head snapped back, then upright again, wrapped so thickly in the stuff that she couldn't even see through it.

"Oh, geeze!" She heard skipper run up to her. "I uh… think I put the spinner on you backwards… m-my fault." She didn't reply, but he must have felt her glaring at him through the thick web, because she felt him grab the strands and pull at them with all his might. "Here, don't worry, I'll have it off, urgh, any second now…"

It took them the better part of an hour to yank and cut the strands of fake spider-silk off of Creepie's head, and even then there were many strands still tangled into her hair, making it look like she was graying on the top. Creepie pulled one of her pigtails forward to examine the gray strings still trapped within it, then shot Skipper another glare.

"Here, we can… we can fix it." Skipper pulled the spinner off of her wrist, turned it around, and placed it back where it belonged facing the right way. Creepie looked down at it, then smiled out of the corner of her mouth, a wicked smile accompanied by her pointing the spinner at his head. "Hey, I didn't mean it." Skipper backed away from her and put his hands up in front of him. "It was an accident, Creepie. Really!"

His back bumped into a nearby tree as she moved closer to him, pinning him there with one hand while the spinner hovered closer to his head. "Okay, go ahead." He closed his eyes. "I deserve it, just help me get out of it afterwards, okay?"

Creepie moved up closer to him, watching him gulp and grab at the bark of the tree behind him. Creepie lowered her arm and leaned up on her tiptoes to press her lips against his cheek, leaving them there for a few moments before pulling back. A few moments later Skipper's eyes opened and he looked down into her grinning face.

"Consider yourself lucky that you have such a cute face." Creepie told him with her usual dull cynicism. Skipper blinked in surprise, then blushed softly and flashed her a relieved smile.

"At least now I know how to defend myself from you." Skipper sighed. "You can be kind of scary you know."

"Thank you." Creepie nodded and stepped back, rubbing the web spinner still on her wrist. She cocked one eyebrow, watching him wipe his forehead with the back of his hand. He was leaning back against the trunk of the tall tree in his front yard with the sun was peeking through the lighter clouds overhead behind him and the tree trunk, framing him in golden light that reflected on the moisture that still rested on the grass from the night's frequent and ferocious rainfall.

Creepie raised one finger to stop Skipper from moving. "Would you mind holding right there while I run home and get my camera? This is a shot I can't miss."

"What, a picture of me?" Skipper blinked in surprise. "Really?"

"Come on, you're a celebrity, you should be used to people wanting pictures."

Skipper laughed. "I'm not THAT much of a celebrity. Still, I wouldn't mind a picture if you want to take one… hey, should I run inside and get my costume?"

"Good thinking, but hurry up or we'll lose the light." Creepie whirled and charged back toward her house, her spindly arms and legs racing to get her home and back again before the sun rose much higher and she lost her chance.

She barely even noticed that she was smiling uncontrollably as she rushed to her room to pluck her camera off of the towel on her nightstand, where she'd left it to dry that morning. She looked down at it to adjust the settings and make sure the rain hadn't completely destroyed it. It seemed to be working fine, though. Chris-Alice must have known she'd be taking it into dark, damp places. This made her smile even more for some reason.

She rushed back down the sidewalk to Skipper's house to find him already leaning against the tree, now wearing the heavy pale makeup, fake fangs, and webbed six-armed suit that transformed him into the terrible, and terribly handsome, Tarantula Boy. His hair had been hastily thrown up though, and looked more 'messy' than 'spike'-ish, but if they wasted time worrying about that the sun would be too high to get the shot.

"Okay, we're ready." Creepie walked in front of him.

"So should I just lean against it or…?" Skipper asked.

"Actually, since you're in-character, climb up the trunk about halfway." Creepie told him. Skipper nodded and turned to the trunk. All six of his arms moved against the trunk, easily grabbing handholds in the bark and propelling himself about halfway up to the lower foliage. "Great, now turn toward me and give me a good, strong hiss."

"A kiss?" Skipper called back teasingly. "That's sort of hard from up here."

"Come on! We're losing the light!" Creepie shouted impatiently.

"Okay, okay." Skipper laughed and flipped around so that he was facing her, his arms gripping the tree trunk behind him. He wrapped his legs around it backward so he could release with all six of his limbs and raise them out to his sides, letting loose with a violent sounding hiss with his fangs bared. His outstretched arms stuck out into the light around the tree, casting a combined shadow with it within the golden sunlight glittered on the rain-slick grass in front of him.

"Wicked." Creepie raised the viewfinder to her eye and took a moment to angle the shot before pressing the button, but the screen in front of her displayed some text reading 'Out Of Memory'. "Oh come on." Creepie quickly opened the viewer on the side of the camera and began to dig through the memory, looking for some pictures she could delete to make room for this one.

"My mouth's getting tired!" Skipper complained.

"I'm hurrying!" Creepie didn't look up from the viewfinder as she cycled through the shots she took yesterday before they went to the hospital. They were all too good for her to just get rid of, but she knew there were a few that were just taking up space. She quickly sped past the good pictures to the one's she'd taken on her way through the hospital. Her thumb jetted up toward the delete button, but when it was less than an inch away she stopped, staring at the picture on the screen dumbfounded.

"Creepie? Is something wrong?" She heard Skipper call from the tree, though she didn't respond. She was still staring at the picture she'd taken of a doctor in a patient's recovery room, holding a clip chart with a kind smile on his face and a white lab coat covering his entire body. What drew her attention was his face. Despite the kind smile, despite the fact that he seemed to be helping a sick patient… it was the same face she'd seen from inches away in the rain just last night…

TOMORROW: Chapter 6: Down With the Sickness


	6. Down With the Sickness

Chapter 06: Down with the Sickness

"Soggy muffins!" Chris-Alice exclaimed in shock as she stared at the picture Creepie had taken, which was now magnified on her computer monitor. The sound of the printer at work was drowned out by Creepie's rapid pacing across the carpet behind her. Skipper was standing beside Chris-Alice, watching Creepie with a watchful eye and a slight frown on his face. His six arms were folded across his stomach, since he hadn't bothered changing out of his costume. "If we can't trust doctors anymore, who CAN we trust?"

"I don't get it." Skipper shook his head. "I don't get it at all. Why would the hospital try to kidnap you for no reason?"

"Maybe it was some kind of mistake." Chris-Alice suggested. "Yeah, they probably thought we were someone else."

"Someone else they were going to kidnap?" Creepie asked.

"It… it could happen." Chris-Alice spoke without much conviction, then sighed. "Okay, maybe not."

Skipper grabbed the enlarged photo from the printer and held it up. "Well, at least we know one of the men who attacked you, we could go to the police and tell them."

"We need evidence, or all they can do is question the guy, and that would just let him know we're on to him." Creepie stopped in front of Skipper and snatched the picture out of his hands to stare at it. Now that it was enlarged, there was no doubt at all that it was the same man from the other night. "The first thing we need is a name. Then with that, maybe we can find some sort of motive. Can we access the hospital's computerized records Chris-Alice?"

"Um, Creepie, this isn't a movie, we don't know any hackers." Chris-Alice pointed out.

Creepie sighed. "Okay then, we'll have to do it the old fashioned way. Through infiltration. First of all, we'll need someone who can distract most of the hospital staff to fake an illness and keep their attention while we work."

"Fake an illness in a hospital?" Skipper exclaimed in surprise. "Who would be dumb enough to agree to something like that?" He placed his hand on his chin to think, but Chris-Alice and Creepie were already exchanging a knowing glance.

An hour later Creepie, Chris-Alice, and Skipper were hiding in the middle of an alleyway near the hospital hastily drawing purple spots on Melanie, who was standing as stiff as a board and watching them work with a confused look on her face.

"Um, I'm confused." Melanie said.

"That's why you're here." Creepie finished drawing spots on her left arm and looked up at her face. "We just need you to go in there and tell the doctors that you're very sick and need immediate attention."

"Wait, why would I do that?"

"Because you want the shiny bell." Creepie held up a small silver bell on a string and jingled it in front of her. "Don't you want the bell?"

"Oh! Yes yes yes! I want it!" Melanie yelled eagerly. Creepie swung it into her arms and she clutched it close to her chest with a broad smile on her face. "So jingly!"

Creepie turned to Chris-Alice. "Get her in and then you get out. I don't want you to stick around in there…"

"I know, you be careful too." Chris-Alice yanked Creepie into a tight hug with her arms around her neck. "If you get caught you're going to be in soooo much trouble."

"Relax, I won't get caught." Creepie grunted and pushed her friend away enough so that she could breathe. "I'll have Tarantula Boy with me."

"Jingle jingle jingle…" Melanie giggled.

"Good luck Chris-Alice. Just remember, in and out for you." Creepie said one last time as her friend took Melanie's hand.

"We've got it, just you be ready when you get your chance." Chris-Alice turned to walk toward the hospital with Melanie in tow, mesmerized by the glittering silver bell dangling from her other hand. "Um, you can have this back when we're finished, Mel." Chris-Alice gently took the bell from her while they stood outside the hospital doors.

"Awww." Melanie sighed.

A few moments later the glass doors of the hospital were flung open and Chris-Alice launched through them with Melanie in toe, shrieking like a siren and flailing her free arm wildly through the air. Chris-Alice ran straight up to the counter with her shrieking friend. "Quick! You've got to help my friend! She suddenly became really, really sick!"

"Oh! My hepatitis is acting up again! Oh woe!" Melanie shrieked. "Woe is me! Oh, now my uvula hurts! Oooohhhhhh!" Melanie swooned dramatically against Chris-Alice with one arm draped across her forehead. "It hurts so bad my bladder is fluttering!"

"Dear God, this girl is delusional!" The nurse pressed a button behind the counter. "We have an emergency here!" Several doctors rushed out of the back as if they were waiting just out of sight for something to happen, while the nurse joined them in crowding around Melanie, who was playing her role with such conviction that she had to be enjoying it. "It's okay, child, tell us where it hurts and we'll make it all better."

"Oohhhh! My mammaries are in my sarcophagus!" She grabbed at her head and let out a piercing scream, flailing so hard the doctors had to grab her to keep her flailing fists from striking them. "Get them out of my… um… thinking-thing! My heart!"

"Hurry, get her to the back so we can examine her! Stat!" One of the doctors yelled as they all came together to grab her arms and drag her toward the back. Melanie continued to scream and flail until one doctor flung open the door in the back to let the others through, then rushed in behind them looking just as frantic.

Before the door could swing closed behind them, a thin arm shot down from the ceiling to grab it, holding it open. Creepie was hanging with her legs wrapped around the waist of her boyfriend Skipper, who was clinging upside down to the roof with the sticky six gloves of his Tarantula Boy costume. They exchanged a glance and a grin as Creepie pulled the door further open and he crept closer to it.

"Good luck!" They heard Chris-Alice whisper in a loud hiss just before the door closed behind them.

Creepie wrapped her arms around Skipper's neck to keep herself well planted against his back while his six arms flashed across the roof with the ease of long practice. They moved down the hall rapidly, hearing Melanie continuing to whine and scream in one of the nearby examination rooms as they passed.

"I have hemorrhoids in my urethra! AAAAHHHHHH!"

They both paused for a moment as their brains were assaulted by that statement, but then they moved on and crept down the hall at a swift, but completely silent, pace. The hallways were well-lit but sparsely occupied. A couple of rooms had patients resting inside of them, but it seemed most of the doctors and nurses were busy trying to calm Melanie down. Soon, after they had searched for nearly ten minutes, they spotted a plain door nearby marked as employees only, and through the window in the door, they could see the light of a computer monitor.

Creepie gestures to Skipper, and he quickly moved down the wall to the door, where Creepie swung down by her feet to open it and let Skipper slip them inside, remaining on the roof until the door was fully closed behind them. Creepie released her grip on Skipper's waist and flipped to the floor, sticking the landing like a gymnast with glue on her feet just before Skipper dropped down beside her in a shock-absorbing crouch.

"Wow." Skipper looked at her appreciatively as he stood. "You're good."

"Thank you." Creepie looked up at him. "It's one of the advantages of being so small. Not a lot of force when you hit the ground. That's why bugs-"

"Can survive a drop of many times their own height while elephants can't fall two feet without getting hurt." Skipper finished for her.

"Right." Creepie smiled briefly, then turned back to business. "Now watch the door while I find our good doctor." Skipper gave her a fast salute and turned to the door while Creepie's feet rapidly padded across the slick, polished floor to one of the desks that lined the room.

She leapt up into the swiveling chair, letting it spin a few times before catching the desk to stop herself and pulling the keyboard into her lap. With one hand she clicked her way through the system's memory while the other hand reached into her dress to withdraw the picture she had printed from the image on her camera. Her eyes flitted back and forth between the picture and the screen as she brought up the profile of each member of the hospital's staff. It was a small hospital though, and within five minutes she saw his unforgettable face come up on the screen.

"Hello Dr. Orion Jeddah." Creepie said to herself as she pressed the print command and turned to watch the printer spit out a copy of his profile. She grabbed the edge of the desk and yanked herself toward the printer, sending the wheeled chair scooting across the floor until she could snatch the paper from its resting place. She spun the chair back toward Skipper and held up the paper. "I have a name to go with the face."

"That's great, now let's get out of here before someone catches us." Skipper suggested.

Creepie hopped off the chair, glancing one more time at the profile. She cocked her head to the side when she noticed a special number listed on the page… the number of his office in the building. If there were any more clues to be had now, they had to be there.

"Hey, we need to make one more stop." Creepie approached Skipper and held up the piece of paper. "I want to see if this guy has anything in his office that might tell me why he came after me."

"I don't know, the longer we're here the more likely it is we'll get caught." Skipper looked around nervously.

"And the longer we don't have any evidence against Dr. Jeddah, the more likely he'll come after us again. I'd rather end this quickly." Creepie pointed out.

"You make a good point… okay. Hop on." Skipper turned away from her. Creepie leapt on his back and clung to it while he scaled up the wall again and carefully pulled them out of the door back out into the hallway. The row of individual offices wasn't far from the main office, so they only had to crawl along the ceiling examining the numbers on the doors. It wasn't long before Creepie nudged Skipper's side and pointed toward the door they were looking for.

Skipper slipped down the wall over the door and Creepie reached for the knob, but it refused to turn. She gritted her teeth in disappointment. Locked. Skipper gestured for her to get down, however, so Creepie flipped off of his back to the floor, looking around quickly to make sure nobody was around while he landed between her and the door. He rose to his feet, drew two long silver objects out of his belt and went to work on the keyhole. Moments later, the lock clicked and the door slid open.

Creepie rushed inside, followed by Skipper, who slipped in behind her and locked the door once they were both in. He turned toward her with a broad smile, but it faded when he saw the blank expression on her face. "What?"

"You're pretty good with a lock pick." Creepie noted.

"One of my first shows at the carnival was escaping from a straightjacket. Nobody thought a nine-year-old could do it, but I proved them all wrong." Skipper smiled proudly. "All locks are pretty much the same."

"And you carry them around now because…?"

"Always be prepared to entertain, and always entertain an escape plan. That's the Carnie Credo. There are some bad people out there Creepie, you can't be too careful."

"I definitely can't argue with that." Creepie looked down at his hands, then up at his eyes again. "Think you could teach me to do that?"

Skipper looked surprised, but smiled broadly. "Sure! I'd love to! Maybe after we're finished here."

"Right." Creepie forced herself to turn away from him. "Back to business… help me look for anything suspicious." She walked toward the desk, leaving Skipper to look through the rest of the room, which was mostly made up of filing cabinets, posters, and a couple of bookshelves.

Creepie approached the desk and examined the clean top before beginning to open drawers and rummage through their contents. They were mostly full of pens and scraps of paper with notes scribbled on them, and for some reason, one of the drawers contained a half-eaten apple. After wringing her nose in disgust she moved on, moving across the length of the desk until she reached one drawer that refused to open. She tugged on it a bit harder in annoyance, then noticed that it was the only drawer on the desk with a lock on it.

"Hello." Creepie smirked. "What are you hiding?" She poked her head around the side of the desk. "Hey Skipper, you feel like working your magic for me?" She gestured toward the drawer.

"Always a pleasure." Skipper turned away from the bookshelves and approached the desk, drawing the long silver lock picks out of his belt again. His agile, long-practiced hands made quick work of the lock and he stepped aside to allow Creepie to pull it out and peer inside of it. On top of another pile of papers and pens was a yellow folder with a strange name written on the front in big, bold lettering. Skipper read it as he peered over her shoulder. "Project Spider-Man?"

Creepie pulled the files out of the drawer, pushing the papers back inside of it. They were close to being scattered, evidence that it had been hastily dropped into the drawer, probably to respond to Melanie's 'emergency'. She pulled out the neat folder and opened it up, her eyes going wide the instant she saw the first page. Paperclipped to the paper was an old photograph of a chubby little baby with pale white skin, large eyes, and short blue hair.

"A baby?" Skipper blinked. "Creepie, do you know her?"

"Yeah…" Creepie's voice was soft as she gripped the folder between her hands. "It's me…"

TOMORROW: Chapter 7: Spider-Girl!?


	7. Spider Girl?

Chapter 07: Spider-Girl!?

Creepie's head snapped up and she let out a gasp when she heard the doorknob of the private office begin to jiggle. On the other side of the cracked window she could see a shadow moving and hear the sound of the doctor mumbling something about false alarms. Creepie's heart leapt in her throat for a moment and she whirled to exchange a quick, terrified glance with Skipper. As if reaching the same conclusion at the same time, they both whirled on the door, raising their hands to fire the web spinners attached to their wrists.

The door had just begun to open when the double mass of webs slammed into it, knocking it shut again and holding it there. "What the…? Hey, is someone in there!?" They heard the doctor yell from the other side of the door as one fist began banging on the window.

"I think it's time to get out of here." Skipper looked around quickly. "We just need a way out."

"The vent." Creepie instantly pointed up toward an air vent positioned on the other side of the room from the desk. Skipper immediately rushed to the wall, his six sticky hands easily bearing him up the wall to the ceiling, where he shoved the cover up into the vent and slipped inside of it. He turned around a moment later and fired a web from his spinner into the floor, where it landed with a splat and stuck like a jiggling ladder.

"Come on, this one isn't sticky. Get up here!" Skipper exclaimed.

Creepie slipped the folder under her arm and began to climb the web. She was normally an excellent climber, but it was hard with one arm and progress was a lot slower than she was used to. She was only halfway up when suddenly the webs on the door gave out and ripped apart with a sudden impact that flung the door wide open. Dr. Jeddah looked up at her in surprise for a moment, before his eyes flitted to the file clutched under her arm.

"Hey! Get back here, thief!" The doctor rushed toward her, but Creepie leaned back a bit, then launched herself up with all the strength she could muster in her legs. Her arm flailed upward, but missed the side of the vent. Her heart leapt when she started to fall, but one of Skipper's arms swiftly arched out to snatch her wrist and yank her into the vent right before the doctor reached the web below and jumped for them. "What are you doing!? Give that back!"

Creepie turned toward Skipper, who looked back with frantic eyes. "Run." Creepie hissed. The two of them whirled to skitter through the vest as fast as they could, their hands and knees sliding through the carefully polished air vents. In the hallways below them they could hear frantic, muffled shouts of alarm and warning as people hustled this way and that. The two of them turned down various vents with no clue where they were going but a powerful drive to get there anyway.

They made their way through the vents until they came to an opening in the bottom, which looked down over another room. They started past it, but Creepie stopped when she heard Dr. Jeddah's voice through the vent.

"They have to stop her! She has the file! If any of that gets out then we're both finished!"

"Relax!" A second, more powerful voice replied. Creepie leaned down next to the vent cover to try to peer through, but the second speaker remained out of sight, though Dr. Jeddah looked very nervous. "Security has already blocked all of the exits, and they're currently locating all of the external holes for the ventilation shafts. Besides, she's still just a child. Who would believe anything she says?"

"If she breathes so much as a word of it…" Dr. Jeddah shuddered and clenched his fists in front of him. "I thought we were finished with this! I thought it was over!"

"Calm down." The second man said firmly. "We know who she is, there's nowhere she can go where we can't find her. We'll deal with Miss Creecher one way or the other. Besides, this may be just the opportunity we've been waiting for all this time…"

Creepie leaned down, trying to get a look at the second man, but she gasped when she felt a pair of hands grab her by the shoulders and drag her away down the vent. For a moment she thought she'd been caught, but then she looked up and saw that it was Skipper pulling her away, down the rest of the ventilation shaft toward a strange dull gray light at the end. Creepie finally regained her senses enough to crawl with him, moving up to the end of the vent and peering out to see the rain-slick streets below them.

Creepie narrowed his eyes when she noticed two police officers standing on the sidewalk, looking around the back alley with sharp eyes. They had the police looking for her? Well, she supposed she was technically stealing, but it was from a criminal, and it was for a good cause.

She blinked when Skipper grabbed the vent cover and grunted, trying to push it off. Creepie put her hands on the metal sides and pushed with him, straining her muscles to pry it off the wall. Finally they managed to shove it loose and Skipper stuck it to the wall with a shot from his web spinner before slinging himself out onto the wall. Creepie jumped after him, grabbing him around the neck and hanging onto his back with her knees while he skittered up the wall to the wide open roof.

They climbed up onto the roof and looked around. Creepie felt three of his arms wrap around her and pull her up against his stomach as he turned away from the building. "You ready, Creepie? I'm gonna get us out of here. You might want to close your eyes."

"I'm fine." Creepie leaned her head back against his chest. "Go for it." Skipper nodded and tightened his arms around her while his top right arm lifted and fired a web at the top corner of a nearby roof. Creepie stepped up on the edge of the roof in front of the building with him, looking down at the people going on about their way. She spotted Chris-Alice hiding out in one of the nearby alleys with a worried expression on her face.

Creepie didn't have time to see more or signal her friend, because Skipper jumped from the top of the building, sending them flying through the air. For an instant they were plummeting straight toward the ground, but in a moment the web went taught and they were swinging forward through the air. They heard people gasp from below, a few shouting 'It's Tarantula Boy' while the tourists began to yell in surprise and terror. It was easy for Creepie to forget that Skipper was such a celebrity.

She stopped breathing when she noticed they were coming up on the corner of the nearby roof, but Skipper kicked them off to the left, narrowly avoiding it. However, the web snagged on a flagpole sticking out of the side of the building, kicking them into a sharp upward curve without warning just before she heard the loud snap of the web breaking. Creepie's eyes went wide when she felt Skipper's grip on her loosen and her small body floated freely into the air.

For an instant her body hovered in the air, then began to plummet the three stories toward the ground. The drop wasn't even long enough for her to think of screaming as her body spun head-first and she could look up to see the slick pavement rapidly approaching. "Creepie!" She heard Skipper scream just before one hand grabbed her ankle, yanking her in to a tight, six-armed embrace that spun them both around just before impact. Skipper hit the ground on his side, but didn't let go of her this time, sending them rolling across the sidewalk until they finally came to a stop.

Skipper groaned and rolled to his back while Creepie pushed herself up to her knees, grabbing his face. "Skipper? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine…" Skipper groaned. "The costume's pretty padded. Just give me a second."

"Creepie! Look out!" Chris-Alice shouted from across the street, running toward them. Creepie looked back toward the hospital to see two police officers running toward them.

"Stop right there!" One of the officers yelled loudly.

"You can rest later, come on." Chris-Alice reached them quickly and helped Creepie heft Skipper off the ground before they both turned to run from the officers with their arachnid friend dangling between them. The police officers were fast, but Creepie and Chris-Alice were faster, quickly ducking into an alley before the officers came around the last corner and watching them run right past without stopping.

Chris-Alice panted, leaning back against the wall with three of Skipper's arms draped around her. "Are you two okay? What happened?"

"The doctor saw me." Creepie panted. "But we got something…" Creepie reached down the front of her dress and pulled out the file she'd snatched from the desk, looking down at it.

"What does it say?" Chris-Alice asked curiously.

"Not here. We should get somewhere safe first." Creepie replied.

"My house. My mom will be home soon, we won't be safer anywhere else." Skipper suggested.

"Your mom? Is she a cop or something?" Chris-Alice asked. Creepie and Skipper exchanged a glance, and Skipper nodded.

"Not quite, but we'll explain later. Come on." Creepie turned to leave the alley.

They rushed down the sidewalk, looking over their shoulders nervously as if they were being stalked by the CIA. Creepie half-expected them to be jumped on the way, but she was relieved when they were able to rush up to Skipper's door without incident and slip inside, locking it securely behind them. The three of them leaned against the door, panting from the exertions of their mad dash through the small city.

"Wow." Chris-Alice pushed herself off the door and looked around. "This is a pretty nice place. But then, I guess I should expect that since you're famous." She flashed Skipper a smile.

"Not THAT famous." Skipper blushed slightly through his white makeup. Creepie's eyes went wide when she realized Chris-Alice was heading toward the living room where the egg sack was still hanging up against the wall.

Creepie pushed off from the door and grabbed her friend's hand to stop her and draw her attention. "Let's go hang out in the den, I like it better in there." So Creepie pulled her friend the other direction, into the smaller den, which still had enough chairs to be comfortable for the three of them.

Soon the three of them were settled and at last, with a shaking hand and a fluttering heart, Creepie opened the file for Project Spider-Man, moving past the first page with her picture and physical description on it into a page titled 'Project Plan'. She set the first page on the arm of her chair and began to read while Chris-Alice and Skipper leaned forward in their seats to listen.

"The Infiltration Experiment, unofficially known as Project Spider-Man, officially begins tomorrow, so it's time for me to lay down a project plan. The physical properties of insects for their size and mass are extraordinary, and it's the hope of this research team that those properties can be given to soldiers on a field of battle, or operatives infiltrating terrorist cells. If successful, this project could revolutionize warfare, law enforcement, and reaffirm the United States as the world's greatest superpower. It's a lot of pressure, but it's worth trying."

"The best doctors and geneticists in the world have already prepped their workstations to receive the data that will begin flowing once the genetic materials arrive. Attempting to precisely replace certain traits within a developing embryo with those of other animals, especially insects, has never been attempted before. I anticipate many failures, but out of those failures will come a triumph that will shape the world."

"The woman who will carry the embryo to term has already been selected from the healthiest scientists we have on record, to prevent natural human flaws from interrupting the process. The first step is to discover which genes directly relate to which physical traits. It will require years of study, and much trial and error, but I remain confident that we can make this work. Signed, Dr. Eugene Gerald."

"You think he's talking about making YOU on that paper?" Skipper's eyes were wide.

"No way, you think so?" Chris-Alice's eyes went wide. "Though I guess being spliced with bugs explains… um…" She blushed and lowered her head when Creepie shot her a venomous glare. "Nevermind. Hey!" She snapped up just as quickly and slapped her palms together brightly. "If they are talking about you, the woman who carried the embryo would be…"

"My mother…" Creepie looked down at the folder and began to turn the page. Instantly Chris-Alice and Skipper were on either side of her, their heads pressed against Creepie's to get a good look at the paper that was slowly revealed in front of them. It was another profile, this one accompanied by a picture of a beautiful woman with slightly darkened skin and a bright, enthusiastic smile underneath a pair of thick round-rimmed glasses that magnified her deep brown eyes. Her silky brown hair was held behind her back in a ponytail, visible only because she was giving the camera a sly sideways look.

As Creepie pulled the picture out of the folder, Chris-Alice patted her shoulder. "I told you your mom would be beautiful."

"She doesn't look anything like you, though," Skipper commented. Creepie looked up at him out of the corner of her eye with a sly smirk. "Not-not that you're not beautiful too Creepie! You are! It's just… anyone else want a drink?" Skipper whirled to retreat into the kitchen.

"I'll take chocolate milk!" Chris-Alice called after him.

Creepie ran her fingers down the front of her mother's picture. According to the profile, her name was Maria Suarez, one of the top scientists of the facility where these experiments had taken place.

Further examination of the contents of the folder didn't reveal much else. Wherever these tests had happened, it wasn't addressed here, and most of the language on the rest of the papers was written in some kind of nonsensical babble that faintly reminded Creepie of certain episodes of Star Trek Budge had shown her. There was one more piece of information to be gained from it though. At the end of the folder, the day the embryo had been born was recorded right here as plain as day…

"Exactly 14 years ago!" Chris-Alice exclaimed. "That means you're 14, not 13! Oh man, I should have used more candles on your cake."

"That's okay, Chris-Alice. I don't mind." Creepie put one hand to her chin. "But this means I wound up in front of Dweezwold exactly one year after I was born. If this is me, how did I get from there to here? The folder doesn't say anything about that, it stops right after the embryo is born."

"Weird…" Chris-Alice stood up straight to stretch out her back. "What is taking Tarantula Boy so long? I'm thirsty."

Creepie looked up from the folder. It had been a while since he'd run into the kitchen. "Maybe he decided to change out of his costume." She slid off of the chair and slipped the picture of Maria down the front of her dress for safekeeping while she turned to head into the kitchen, leaving the folder sitting on the chair behind her. Chris-Alice followed her through the house into the kitchen, where she let out a surprised yell.

"Skipper!?" Creepie exclaimed as she rushed toward her boyfriend, who was lying on the countertop across the kitchen, struggling against ropes that bounds his arms and legs together, and trying to yell through the gag that covered his mouth. Creepie pulled herself up the counter to the countertop, where she knelt beside him to pull the gag off of his mouth. Skipper opened his mouth, but fell silent as his eyes looked right past her head.

Slowly Creepie turned to look behind her. Two men were towering over her and Chris-Alice, already standing within arm's reach of them with their arms crossed over their chests. One of them was already very familiar by now.

"I hate it when science experiments go bad." Dr. Jeddah shook his head, then suddenly his arms lashed out for her.

TOMORROW: Chapter 8: Chasing the Dream


	8. Chasing the Dream

Chapter 08: Chasing the Dream

Creepie tried to struggle against the bonds that held her arms and legs as she was carried into Skipper's living room over the shoulder of one of their attackers, but the ropes were pretty tight and gave her little leeway. She gasped, then grunted when she was thrown off of his shoulders to hit the soft sofa with a thud. She nearly vanished inside the cushion, with Chris-Alice already sitting on the sofa to her left, staring up at the men in shivering fear. Skipper was on her right, staring at Creepie with a sad look.

"Disgusting decor…" Dr. Jeddah shivered as he looked past the sofa at the egg sack that hung from the wall.

"Sorry, I tried to say something, but they got the jump on me." Skipper sighed.

"It's not your fault. I know you wouldn't want this to happen. So don't beat yourself up, okay?" Creepie flashed him a stiff smile.

"Creepie Creecher, yes?" Creepie's eyes were turned away from Skipper and up to Dr. Jeddah when he spoke, standing in front of the kids with his hands now tucked neatly inside of his pants pockets. "I still can't believe you're still around. We looked everywhere for you, where could you have possibly been hiding for all of these years?"

"I dunno." Creepie shrugged. "Guess I'm just good at scurrying into dark corners."

"Smart mouth." The doctor smirked and looked back as his companion approached with the yellow folder from the other room.

While they were distracted Creepie leaned closer to Skipper. "Are you entertaining an escape plan yet?"

"I'm working on it." Skipper whispered back as his eyes darted around the room.

Dr. Jeddah turned back to them with the folder from his officer held firmly in both hands and a victorious smile on his face. "I must admit, the scare you gave me earlier is going to be completely worth it. With you back, the project can continue, and gather far more data than we ever dreamed possible."

"Are you sure it's me you want?" Creepie asked.

"Of course. The DNA test we ran on your blood has proven it beyond the shadow of a doubt." The doctor shook his head. "To think you'd just walk back to us after all that happened."

Creepie considered for a moment, then steeled herself with a deep breath. "If you were there when I was born, my mother…"

Dr. Jeddah chuckled and shook his head. "Of course, that's why you were there to begin with, wasn't it?" He approached to stand in front of her, staring down at her with a steady gaze."I suppose you want to know where your real mother is. I'm not a cruel man, so I'll be honest and tell you that we don't know where she is. She disappeared right after you did." Creepie nodded slowly and the doctor turned away from her to look down at the file. "I suppose you read this."

"Uh-huh." Creepie's gaze was suddenly drawn by the sight of movement out of the corner of her eye. She cocked her head curiously when she noticed a tiny black spider crawling across the arm of the sofa, its mandibles clicking together silently as it wandered.

"If it helps… your mother didn't see you as a project, I think. She saw you as a daughter." Dr. Jeddah shook his head.

"Great." Distracted now, Creepie kicked herself up the back of the couch to look back at the egg sack. One by one the millions of tine eggs inside were splitting apart as tiny black forms busted their way out. Right now the spiders emerging from it was just a trickle, but soon there would be hundreds, if not thousands of them. Now caught up in a rapid thought process, Creepie let herself fall onto her butt again on the sofa. She looked again at the lone spider on the arm of the sofa, who seemed to be watching them.

"Would you like to hear about her while we wait for your ride back home?" Dr. Jeddah asked.

"No thanks." Creepie glanced at Skipper and elbowed him in the ribs, then jerked her head toward the spider. Skipper looked, then blinked and looked back behind the sofa. A sly smile spread across his lips as he sat back down. "I already have a home here."

"I'm afraid you can't live here any longer." Dr. Jeddah turned back toward them, his eyes instantly moving up over their heads to the wall where the spiders were emerging in even greater numbers. "What the…"

"Well you're not taking her!" Skipper raised his voice in a hideous, monstrous shriek that nearly scared Chris-Alice off of the sofa. She began to scream in earnest however when the shriek was echoed by hundreds of tiny voices, all of whom began to flood over the back of the sofa in a swift charge toward the doctor and his companion.

They were going around the three kids tied up on the sofa, but Chris-Alice was nearly in tears freaking out and trying to get away. "AAAHHHHHH! Spiders! Spiders! Get them off of me! Get them off of me! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Finally her screams grew so intense she forgot to breathe and promptly passed out on the sofa before rolling to the floor face-down with a thump.

Creepie and Skipper looked down at her, then exchanged a glance before turning back to Dr. Jeddah, who was frantically backing away from the mass of baby spiders so thick they looked like a walking black carpet. Retreating back toward the next room, his legs kicked out in desperation to try to dislodge those forerunners who had managed to reach him and dart up his pant leg. When the main mass was less than a foot from him he finally whirled to run full tilt into the next room.

"Yes!" Creepie looked at the arm of the couch at a few of the swarming arachnids. "Hey, could you guys cut us loose?"

"Okay!" The spiders detoured in their direction, their mandibles small but their massive numbers quickly ripping through the ropes that bound Creepie and Skipper. They untied Chris-Alice too, but her arms just flopped to the floor beside her with tiny thuds.

"Thanks so much! We owe you guys!" Creepie jumped from the sofa, careful not to land on any of the tiny creatures. Skipper jumped up beside her.

"We'd do anything for you, mommy and daddy!" The spiders swarmed up Creepie's legs, while others swarmed up Skipper's to give them both big hugs.

Skipper and Creepie exchanged a quick, intense glance. "Mommy and… nononono!" Skipper held up his hands. "I'm your brother, and we're not…"

Creepie nodded furiously. "Right, he's your brother, and I'm-"

"Mommy! Daddy!" The spiders swarmed them until they were both hidden under big writhing piles of arachnids.

Creepie sighed. "Sure, fine, I just hope your real mom doesn't freak about this when she gets home. Now really, thanks so much for your help, but we have to get out of here before Dr. Jeddah comes back with reinforcements." Creepie hurriedly started brushing spiders off of her by the armful, though she was carefully gentle.

"Awww…" the spiders moaned in disappointment.

"We'll come back soon, okay? Just hold tight for a while." Skipper plucked Chris-Alice's unconscious body off the ground and slung her over one shoulder with three arms holding her in place. "Come on Creepie, let's get out of here!"

"Right." Creepie nodded and the two of them whirled to rush toward the back door on the other side of the living room. The spiders called after them, upset to see them go, but Creepie was still too busy frantically trying to sort this all out in her mind to worry too much about that. Now not only did they know Dr. Jeddah was going to keep coming after them, but he had the folder with all of the evidence they could have taken to the police. They had nothing, they were worse off than before they'd gone back to the hospital.

They rushed into Skipper's expansive backyard and ran across the grass toward the small woodlands on the edge of Middlington. Creepie's family could hide well enough in the middle of the city at Dweezwold, but Skipper's mom was too active to remain hidden in the middle of the city. Living on the outskirts suited them much better, which was pretty convenient for them now as they rushed into the forest to vanish among the trees.

Creepie whirled when she heard several twigs snap behind her, but she heaved a sigh of relief when she saw it was just a squirrel, who darted away at her sudden movement. She turned back to see Skipper leaning against a nearby tree with one hand on his chest while he panted for breath, as the other five arms held Chris-Alice cradled against his stomach.

"Geeze, my mom is going to freak out…" Skipper panted. "I left them all alone…"

"Your brothers and sisters will be okay, I don't think those guys would dare set foot in the house again." Creepie walked up to him as he leaned down to gently set their unconscious friend on the grass. "How about you? Are you okay?" Creepie asked more gently.

"Yeah, just a bit shaken." Skipper gave her a slight, comforting smile. "How about you?"

"I'll be fine once we get those guys off my back." Creepie returned the smile, then reached into the front of her dress to pull out the picture of her mother. "Looks like we only have one lead left, though… if we can find her, she can probably help us convince the police those men are really up to something."

"Plus you'll get to meet your real mom." Skipper smiled gently.

"Yeah, well…" Creepie looked away for a moment, then looked up at him again. "First thing's first. We have to find her… here." Creepie held the picture out to him.

"Huh? Why are you giving this to me?" Skipper blinked in confusion.

"I think it'll be safer with you." Creepie explained. "They're not after you, they're after me. If something happens to me…"

"I won't let anything-" Skipper started, but Creepie narrowed her eyes and shoved the picture into his chest to interrupt.

"Just take it. It doesn't sound like we have a lot of time to argue about it." Creepie jerked her head back toward the edge of the forest, where they could hear more twigs snapping, along with men shouting to one another through the forest. "Come on, we should try to get back to town. If we can find a crowd they won't be able to chase us without calling attention to themselves."

Skipper nodded and lifted Chris-Alice over one shoulder again before they both started running through the forest again.

"I think I heard them! Over there!" A man's voice shouted from behind them. Creepie gritted her teeth and pumped her legs even harder, her small and lithe body easily weaving through the twigs and underbrush. Skipper kept up with her with his longer stride, but he was clearly getting tired having to carry Chris-Alice the whole way. He wasn't doing as good a job of weaving through the underbrush, so Creepie whirled back, grabbing his hand, and yanked him back toward the forests edge.

They burst out onto the grassy field again a good distance from Skipper's house, charging down the small hill that overlooked the town of Middlington. Looking back over her shoulder, Creepie could see several men burst from the forest behind them, none of whom were the men who had confronted them in Skipper's house. Great, Creepie thought to herself, just how many people were chasing them?

Their feet pounded across the thick grass until they finally reached the first line of houses and charged up between two of them to the sidewalk, but they both skidded to a halt when the same black car from the night before came down the street towards them. Instantly Creepie whirled to run the other way, grabbing Skipper's hand to pull him along with her. Of course, they had no hope of actually outrunning a car. They needed another escape route.

She picked up the pace, but she suddenly realized she was leaving Skipper a little too far behind. She skidded to a stop and looked back. "Skipper?"

Skipper ran up to her, panting heavily and shaking with the strain of carrying Chris-Alice. "I don't… know how much further… I can go…" Creepie gritted her teeth. They couldn't just leave Chris-Alice behind, those men might take her anyway since she knows so much about what's going on. Besides, she wasn't sure Skipper could go on much further even without her. He was even paler than he usually looked in his Tarantula Boy makeup.

Creepie glanced down a nearby alley with a large green dumpster in it. "Come on, I have an idea!" Creepie darted down the alley, and Skipper quickly followed behind her.

"Um, Creepie? Weren't we trying to find a place with lots of people?" Skipper huffed. Creepie didn't respond until they'd gotten to the far side of the dumpster, where she whirled and roughly shoved Skipper against the wall, where he collapsed to the floor with Chris-Alice on top of him. "Creepie!? What are you doing!?"

"Meet me at Budge's later. For now stay down, and stay quiet." Creepie raised the web spinner on her arm and instantly fired a steady stream at the two of them. Skipper let out a yell, but it was muffled by the webs that quickly coated their bodies, making them look like a giant pair of trash bags woven from spider silk. She finished just before the men chasing her turned down the alley on foot, so she whirled and charged toward the opposite end of the alley.

She skidded to a sudden stop when Dr. Jeddah appeared in front of her, flanked by two more men in black suits. "Calm down, Creepie. We're not going to hurt you. We're not evil men, we just want to know how you've developed for these last 14 years."

"You could just ask. Because I don't wanna leave my friends." Creepie backed away from him, glancing back quickly to keep an eye on the men closing in from behind.

"Come now, Creepie. Do you think you belong here? You're so special, you should be doing special things. Such as advancing the human understanding of genetics. The alterations done to your body prove that we can alter the human genetic structure to create a living, breathing person. With what we learn from you, we could achieve perfection. A world of perfect people."

"Perfection is overrated." Creepie replied. "Nobody needs to be perfect, we just need to be who we are."

"I'm sorry you feel that way. Because it's not your call to make." Dr. Jeddah stepped closer to her. "Now give up, you have nowhere to go."

"Says you." Creepie whirled and darted toward the wall. At first the men didn't bother giving chase, until she jumped up against the wall, her tiny fingers and the toes of her shoes finding enough purchase in the bumpy old brick wall to heave her up the side of the building.

It took the men a few moments to realize she was getting away, mesmerized as they were by the sudden and unexpected move. "Hey! She's getting away!" One of the men ran to the wall and jumped for her, but Creepie had already skittered too far up the wall for him to reach, quickly making her way to the top of the short building. "Go around, don't lose her!" The men in the alley scrambled to split off into different directions as Creepie reached the top of the building.

She took off across the roof as fast as she could, running toward the building on the other side. A web shot out from the spinner on her wrist, linking this roof to the next so she could charge from rooftop to rooftop without stopping. Glancing down, she could see the men still trailing after her from the sidewalks. Her mind raced to think of a way off of the rooftops without them seeing, but the only way she could think of was down through the building.

She skidded to a stop and looked down at the roof, but there was no way in from here. These weren't office-buildings, they were peoples' homes. But maybe she could find one with a chimney.

That thought faded from her mind when she heard the steady, powerful beating of helicopter blades ripping through the air as a giant black helicopter hovered toward her. It was distant for the moment, but it was getting closer, and headed straight toward her. "A helicopter? They're really serious about this. Are these guys military or something?" Creepie stepped back in surprise toward the far edge of the roof, then looked down to see several men staring up at her, as if waiting for her to fall.

"Surrender now!" A voice blared from the helicopter as it hovered closer to the roof she was on. Her mind raced. Even if she could outrun the men, there was no way she could outrun a helicopter. She'd have to take it down first… which she knew she could, with the web spinner on her arm. It would be easy to bring it crashing to the ground by gumming up the blades, but how many people would be hurt in the crash? The last thing she ever wanted to do was hurt anybody.

She moved away from the edge of the roof when she realized the men from the sidewalk were now climbing carefully up after her. On the other sides some of the men had already reached the top, and were watching her with careful, sharp expressions. Creepie swept her eyes across the roof, then took a deep breath to steel herself as she slowly raised her arms into the air in surrender.

TOMORROW: Chapter 9: Growing Up Creepie


	9. Growing Up Creepie

Chapter 09: Growing Up Creepie

A black haze surrounded her. Even when she opened her eyes, through her narrowed slits all she could see was the blackness that seemed to have engulfed her senses forever. The sound of voices mumbling echoed through ears that seemed for a moment unable to piece together the meanings of their words, until suddenly a bright light flared to life through the darkness. She closed her eyes again for a moment, then blinked and struggled to open them to see what was happening. The light was all she could see, however.

"Her resistance to the tranquilizer is remarkable, doctor." A voice spoke from somewhere outside the light, barely recognizable in her hazy mind. The voice was faintly familiar… "The dosage in her body would have an elephant in the grave, but she's still regaining consciousness in periodic intervals."

"Insect like resistance to toxins and disease." The deep voice from the hospital replied. "Absolutely remarkable. Physical capabilities?"

"Muscle mass seems less than a standard human." The second voice replied. "But her body structure is lighter and more agile. This is confirmed by reports from those who attempted to apprehend her and saw her scale straight up the walls of buildings."

Creepie tried to crane her head to look up at the voices that seemed to float from the darkness just out of sight. As her head lolled side-to-side, she felt the table begin to move upward, lifting her closer toward the light. She squinted against it again uncomfortably, trying to pull her hands up only to find that they were bound tightly to the cold steel table.

"She's awake." The man's cold voice said with what sounded like admiration in his voice. "If we can isolate what it is that gives her body such immunity, it could mean an end to disease as we know it. We could cure anything that came our way. Or make humanity immune… at lease, those humans who deserve to be immune."

"Wh…" Creepie panted for breath as she tried to speak. It was even difficult to control her lungs. "Wer… ammai…"

"Where are you?" The doctor's voice clarified with a ghost of a chuckle lingering in his voice. "You are shaping the world, my dear. Whether you realize it or not." Creepie winced when she felt something stab into her arm, and looked just in time to see a needle drawing away from her. She struggled for a moment against the solid steel locks that held her in place, but quickly she felt the darkness once again consuming her mind and her eyes closed once more.

"Creepie." The sound of her mother's voice jerked the young girl's head up from staring down at her bowl of Honeybee Cereal with the handle of her spoon sticking out of one corner of her mouth. Her tiny mother's eyes were kind as always, thought her tone was as commanding as ever. "Is something wrong, Creepie? You've been staring at your cereal for some time. I know you hate it when it gets too soggy."

"Sorry." Creepie shook her seven-year-old head, staring down at her mother, who was standing on the table and looking up at her with a concerned gaze. "I was just thinking. You and dad are getting real tiny lately."

Carolina chuckled and shook her head. "We're not getting tiny, Creepie, you're getting bigger."

"Bigger than the rest of you." Creepie noted.

"That is true." Her mother replied in a guarded tone.

"Why am I bigger than you?" Creepie asked bluntly. "Am I different, somehow?" For several long moments, her mother just stared up at her with a stunned, and somewhat dismayed expression on her face. Her husband, Vinncent the Mosquito, buzzed over to them from the counter, where he'd been preparing food for the larvae who would soon be hatching from their eggs. He landed beside his wife with a solemn expression on his face.

"Yes, Creepala. You are." Vinnie opened his cape-like arms with a smile. "You are not a bug like us, you are what is called a human."

"A human?" Creepie asked. "Like those people who like to hurt bugs? I don't want to be one of them, I like being a bug."

"Well, yes." Carolina said. "But not all humans are bad, Creepie. Like you."

"Of course." Vinne gave her a broad, gentle smile. "You are very special, Creepie, to us and to your many cousins who dwell here in this place. You may be human, but that does not change that you are our daughter and we both love you very much." He flew up from the table to land on her shoulder and give her cheek a brief hug while her mother jumped up on her arm to crawl up to her other shoulder, hugging her other side. Creepie watched them both, for the first time keenly aware of just how different they were.

Creepie smiled a moment later. "I love you guys too, but… maybe you could tell me a bit about humans?"

Vinnie flashed her another warm smile as he replied, "What would you like to know?"

"It's proven difficult to get an exact read on what parts of her body are generating these fantastic antibodies. They're fighting off the tranquilizers almost as soon as we administer them, now." A strange voice echoed from the darkness again as Creepie felt her memories slip away, replaced by the present, where her eyes opened to see lights flashing past overhead. She could feel herself rolling across the ground atop the table she was strapped to, still unable to move.

"It must be the cockroach DNA we embedded into her genetic makeup." The deep voice from before that had grown so horrifyingly familiar replied. "Somehow it must be allowing her body to adapt to the changes in chemical balance, just like those annoying little bugs do."

Creepie lolled her head to the side, trying to get a good look at one of her captors, but the world continued to exist in a hazy fog she could barely see through. "Wha… y… gh…" She fought to speak, but could barely form more than rough sounds.

"Dear God, she's awake again!" One of the other voices exclaimed in shock. "Get more tranquilizers in her, quick! Before she awakens completely!"

"No… no!" Creepie struggled against the cold steel that held her tight against the table, but she could barely control her muscles. Her body spasmed desperately against her restraints until she felt several pairs of hands grip her arms and legs while something sharp jammed into her right arm. "No! Lemme… lemme go…" Creepie grunted as the haze that covered the world began to grow stronger than ever. "I wanna… go home…" Creepie panted and struggled to lift her head, but even the muscles in her neck wouldn't respond now.

"Learn to accept it, child." The horrific doctor's voice called after her as she began to plunge back into the darkness. "You have no true home."

The Chrysalis Room was always so tranquil, nine-year-old Creepie thought as she sat down on the hard wood floor near the door to watch all of the chrysalis' and cocoons sway through the gentle, steady breeze that came in through the room's one window. Her wide, wondering eyes watched the tiny shells with the eye of a guardian, making sure that nothing could harm them before the lives forming within had a chance to emerge.

She was there for several hours before, suddenly, she gasped at the sound of glass shattering and the sight of a slightly beaten-up baseball. It thunked to the rotting hardwood floor and rolled into one of her feet before coming to a stop. Curiously, Creepie plucked the ball off of the floor, then pushed herself up and approached the window. When she heard voices outside she ducked behind the wall to make sure she wasn't seen. Those sounded like human voices.

"Soggy muffins!" A shrill voice exclaimed in dismay through the window. A voice Creepie would one day come to know as Chris-Alice. "The ball went into the old Dweezwold place!"

"Oh no!" A softer, brighter voice floated through the air like a flute, who Creepie now knew to be Melanie. "I've heard that place is so haunted it's not even funny! Like a million ghosts in there!"

"Please, you really believe in ghosts?" Carla's sharp voice scoffed at the idea. "Everyone knows Santa Clause destroyed all the ghosts a long time ago."

"If you say so." A lighter, stranger voice replied. Creepie crept closer to the window and pulled herself up so that she could just barely peek outside at the small group of kids playing in the large grassy field behind the mansion. A boy was standing with the group of girls, a boy with darker skin and a bit more flesh on his body than the others. Creepie knew now that this was Budge, before the growth spurt that had made him a giant among his peers. "Personally, I don't want to know if ghosts exist. I'll be happy never knowing."

"Well somebody's going to have to find out, because we can't finish our game without a ball." Carla pointed out sharply. Creepie glanced down at the ball in her hand, realizing this was what they were after. "And since she's the head of both baseball teams, I elect Chris-Alice." Carla patted her redheaded friend on the head and flashed her a grin. "Just in case you do get eaten by a ghost, it's been nice knowing you."

"What? Me?" Chris-Alice gulped and looked up at Dweezwold Manor. "Well… sure! I'm not scared! Even if there is a ghost, I can handle it because I'm a Hollyruller!"

"And Hollyrullers always win, yeah yeah, we know." Carla huffed.

"Just get our ball back." Melanie added.

"Yeah, and remember that house is death incarnate." Carla grinned.

"That's fine." Chris-Alice looked up at the spooky old, rotting mansion and gulped again. "Just fine… I can beat death incarnate." For a moment she seemed to waver, then she took a deep breath and began to march across the unkempt lawn toward the window where Creepie was hiding. Creepie narrowed her eyes at Carla and Melanie, not even knowing their names and yet despising the smug way they held their hips as they watched Chris-Alice approach Dweezwold.

Creepie dropped from the windowsill and stepped back, giving herself some room to wind up the most powerful throw her tiny arm could manage. The ball sailed blindly through the window, and she winced when she heard Chris-Alice scream "OUCH!" along with the sound of the ball rebounding off of her head. Creepie quickly jumped up to look at Chris-Alice and the rest of the kids stared down at the ball in shock.

"But… but the house is all dead…" Chris-Alice's mouth slowly opened in horror.

"GHOOOOST!" Melanie's shriek drove all of the kids wild at once, scattering them across the lawn away from Dweezwold as fast as they could go. They moved so fast Chris-Alice ditched the baseball, leaving it lying alone and forgotten on the grass.

Cocking one eyebrow, Creepie slipped out of the window and walked across the lawn to lean down and pick up the ball. She'd meant to return it, not scare the living daylights out of them. Oh well, she sighed to herself, maybe she could find a way to return it later. For now, her attention was drawn back to her home, where she heard the soft, wonderful sound of the cocoons inside the Chrysalis Room beginning to crack open.

A few butterflies flitted out of the room, followed by more until it looked like a parade of rainbows pouring from the decrepit old building. The moths and butterflies shouted their goodbyes as they spiraled into the sky, and Creepie bid them farewell with a wave of her hand. She had to wonder, how could anyone think Dweezwold was dead when there was so much life springing forth from it?

"Her brainwave activity is increasing again, doctor. She's regaining consciousness!" A man's voice exclaimed as Creepie's eyes opened once again to the dark haze that obscured her vision. "If we continue on with this she'll be conscious during the experiment. I recommend aborting immediately."

"We've wasted enough time trying to keep her under sedation. Proceed with the experiment."

"But sir, it's inhumane…" The gentler man's voice was cut off.

"We'll take all necessary steps after the experiment is completed. Proceed as planned. We need to see the limits of her ability to adapt." The doctor replied. Creepie groaned and tried to lift her arms, but found her wrists still bound to the table. Her eyes jerked around her as the dark haze slowly began to solidify, bringing light to her eyes that allowed her to see the steel ceiling over her head, and the sterile white walls around her.

Her eyes darted around the room, taking in her surroundings, including the many cameras that were lodged in the ceiling. Most were focused on her, but one camera in particular turned away from her to aim toward a strange circle cut into the floor. Creepie lifted her head to look down at the circle, squinting her eyes until they were able to focus enough to make it clear in her vision. Her breath came in deep gasps, her body trembling as the circle in the floor spiraled open until there was a hole in the floor the size of a basketball.

"Irradiating subject." The gentle man's voice wavered over the intercom that blared through the small chamber as a strange, glowing green device lifted into the room with Creepie. Creepie stared at it for a moment, then gasped and redoubled her efforts to struggle free. She struggled with all her might, putting her entire body into yanking at the restraints until her wrists felt like they were going to be yanked right off of her arms.

She gasped when suddenly her sweaty wrists slipped out of the restraints and she flipped over the side of the table she'd been strapped to, hitting the floor with a solid thud. She panted as she pushed herself up to her hands and knees, her entire body beginning to sweat. She pulled herself away from the dangerous substance, towards the door on the far side of the room, trying to get away more by instinct than any rational thought. Her head still felt fuzzy… but there was nothing unclear about the panic she was in.

"Subject's radiation levels are rising exponentially… approaching normal human tolerance." The man's voice over the intercom was audibly wavering, but Creepie didn't care. She reached the door and leaned against it, pushing at it as if she could shove it open and escape. Despite being so close, however, the door refused to open.

She brought her fist back and banged on the door as hard as she could, leaning her head against the cold steel to watch her sweat run down the smooth surface. "Let me out…" She croaked. "Let me… out…" She could feel her strength giving out again and she fell to her butt on the floor, leaning her back against the door. She was panting for breath, staring across the room at the radioactive substance that was poisoning her body. "Don't do… this to me…" She pleaded softly.

"Radiation levels well above critical… subject's vital signs are beginning to fluctuate." The man's voice projected from the intercom. At least they seemed happy with their experiment, Creepie thought as her eyes began to close again. It felt like her body was on fire now, but in a moment that was once again consumed by the darkness.

The sun was gentle, shining through the thin gray clouds overhead, refusing to let its fiery orange glow be completely contained. The orange light spread out across Middlington, lighting up the town like a flame out of control, and sending its people scurrying into the shadows that were so familiar to the pair who sat perched inside the lower branches of one of the trees that swayed in the breeze just outside of town. The view was grand, the air was crisp and clear, and they were both certain they were sitting with the only person in the world who knew who they really were.

"Creepie?" Skipper glanced over at her from the branch on which he sat. When Creepie turned her eyes to him she saw his arachnid-like form concealed from the light by the foliage all around them. "Do you ever stop and think what's next?"

"I usually don't." Creepie shrugged slightly. "I mean sure, sometimes I think about what I'm going to do when I get older… what kind of job I'll get. Mostly though, I like to think of myself as a bug. Scurrying about my days without a care in the world beyond what's for dinner and where I'm going to sleep tonight."

"You think you can do that forever?" Skipper asked curiously.

"Who has forever?" Creepie replied calmly. "We're all going to die at some point… if we spend our time worrying too much about the future, we could miss the present and then when the future comes, we'll have nothing… we'll have done nothing. I like doing things."

"You have a point, I guess." Skipper shook his head. "Still, you must have something you want to do before you die. Something you haven't done."

"Your human world is still pretty strange to me…" Creepie confessed softly, staring through the foliage at the descending orange sun whose light was now framing the town of Middlington. "I'm not even sure what all there is to do in it… so I guess I want to do everything."

Skipper laughed. "That would take a pretty long time. You've got to start somewhere."

"Sure." Creepie smiled over at him. "Finding someone to do it all with was step one."

"Well…" Skipper returned her smile. "That's one thing you don't need to do anymore."

Creepie looked over at him again with a soft gaze. "Then it's on to do everything else. After all, I don't have forever."

TOMORROW: Chapter 10: Growing Up Creepier


	10. Growing Up Creepier

Chapter 10 – Growing Up Creepier

"I can barely detect any vital signs, doctor." A man's voice seemed to come from far away, as if muffled by the darkness that enveloped her. "Even just touching her arm, you can feel that she's quite stiff. She's not quite dead, but it's like rigor mortis is already setting in." She felt her heart leap into her throat, and she tried to move, but something was strange. She felt like she was trapped within the darkness, inside of some kind of box or bag that enveloped her entire body, though she couldn't tell what it was.

"I thought you said her vitals were stable." The doctor's deep, commanding voice replied with a hint of irritation. "What is causing this?"

"We don't know sir, it's completely outside of our expected results." The first voice replied. "We're afraid if we don't act soon, we could lose her, but we have no idea what to do."

The doctor sighed. "It doesn't matter… we've done all the tests we can with a live specimen. If we have to resort to dissection for the rest of our data, then so be it."

"But sir…" The voice gasped in horror.

"You said there's nothing we can do." The doctor reminded the second voice. "Let her go, our benefactor has already agreed to formally continue the project. That was what we really needed her for anyway. We can take our time from here on out. We can make another one if we REALLY have to." Creepie felt her arm move, as if whatever she was wrapped in was being touched by a firm hand. "It is a shame. I would have preferred not to resort to this, but progress takes no prisoners."

With that, Creepie heard two sets of footsteps begin to walk away from her, leaving her lying inside of the darkness. Her heart raced and her breath quickened. Was she really dead… was this what it was like to be dead? Trapped inside of some sort of box? No… no, she thought to herself and began to squirm against her restraints, banging her head up against the top. It was feeling so tight all of a sudden, squeezing in around her body… or was she getting bigger?

She gasped when she heard a soft crack, and bright light came through a crack just above her eyes. She gritted her teeth and kicked her arms and legs, shoving herself up against the top of the strange box. Her head slammed into it a few more times, widening the crack and sending pieces flying off into the light outside. She tried to move all the way through it, but she seemed to be caught at the neck, so she pushed with her entire body, grunting with the strain. She could feel the container started to give way, bending outward away from her limbs until, at last with a loud crack, it flew open and Creepie Creecher was suddenly engulfed by bright hospital lights.

Blinking against the bright lights, Creepie sat up and slipped off of the table, stumbling on legs that felt a little too long, waving arms that seemed a little too sensitive to the wind they created. As last she gained her footing and brought her arms in front of her, staring in shock at the bristling, dark blue hairs that covered them.

"What… what happened…?" Creepie stumbled again back against the table, and felt something crushed under one hand that moved to support her against it. She looked down, then yelped in surprise and stumbled away from the table. Lying on top of it was her, Creepie Creecher, her body cracked and splintered across the floor like a discarded carcass. She was so surprised her foot slipped across the polished metal floor and she fell to her back with a thump and a groan.

"I…" Creepie slowly began to calm down, the realization finally dawning on her. "I… molted… sort of." Gulping, Creepie put her palms on the floor and pushed herself up. She could see now that her longer, fuller body was coated in countless tiny blue hairs that hid her flesh from view, and also picked up even the tiniest wind that moved through them. She was feeling sensations she'd never experienced before, it was like every inch of her body could see the movement of the wind…

Wait, wind? Wasn't this a sealed room? Creepie's head darted around quickly, scanning the walls to find them bare. However, there was a thick white vent on the ceiling, painted over so thoroughly it was easy to miss, but she could still see the slits that allowed the air to circulate and keep it from becoming too stale. It would be a tight fit with her slightly larger body, but Creepie was sure she could get through it if she could just get to it.

Her mind ripped from the strange new situation by a goal, she pushed herself up the wall and rushed to the table in the middle of the room. She hesitated only a moment before sweeping the remains of her old body to the floor so she could climb up on the steel table and reach for the vent right in the center of the room. Despite her longer arms and legs, however, she couldn't reach it. Even jumping didn't do much, she was still so far away from it.

"Come on…" Creepie grunted and jumped harder, but her slightly hooked fingers still fell well short of the vent, no matter how hard she pushed off from the table. She ducked down as low as she could and pushed with every muscle in her body. She felt muscles move that she'd never known existed before, in fact she was pretty sure they hadn't, and a strangely fierce wind pushed down the sides of her body. Still, whatever she'd done did the trick, because her hands finally grasped the vent. "Yes! Urgh…" She wiggled her body back and forth, tugging until finally the vent fell open to one side.

She swung herself up to grip the inside of the ventilation shaft and pulled herself up with practiced ease gained from years and years of learning from her insect family. She slid silently through the shaft as fast as she could, moving on her toes and fingertips so she would touch the sides of the vent as little as possible. As she passed by different openings in the vent she could see men and women in lab coats hustling back and forth busily, many carrying folders or pieces of strange-looking equipment. The building itself seemed to be made entirely out of some kind of metal, though she was hardly enough of an expert to identify what kind.

After a few minutes she peered down into another vent, to see a room filled with computers that seemed to be completely empty. Her first instinct was to find a way out of the building as fast as possible, but where would that leave her? Would she run forever hoping they didn't find her? Or would she take advantage of this situation to identify these people and somehow get them shut down later? Being caught was a frightening thought, but she had to take her chance.

Her hands gripped the shaft grate and pushed at it with all her strength, eventually jerking it free and letting it swing open. Creepie gripped the side of the vent and swung her lithe body down into the empty room, flipping through the shaft entrance and landing on her feet in a crouch moments later. She rushed over to one of the computers and her long, slender fingers quickly tapped against the keyboard, searching through the computer. Though it didn't take long to find what she was looking for.

"The Rembrandt Corporation, funded by the American Government, working on top-secret research in the hopes of finding a way to create a hardy soldier who can survive the rigors of combat." Creepie smirked slightly to herself. "A soldier like Spider-Man, I guess." Then there, one click away, were the profiles of everybody who worked on the project, including one particular name that immediately piqued Creepie's interest. "Maria Suarez…" She muttered softly under her breath, her excitement growing with every click of the mouse and she delved into her birth mother's electronic profile to discover…

"Current location unknown." Creepie grunted in disappointment. She would have loved to meet her mother, just for a few minutes. Once she'd gotten over that, however, she kept reading. "Subject is still on the run after her betrayal of the Rembrandt Corporation… attempts to locate her and bring her to justice have ended in failure." Creepie blinked. "She's a fugitive… but why? What did she do?" She looked through the profile for anything to answer her question, but found no answers.

"What the…!?" Creepie's head jerked up when she heard a deep, strong voice from the door. A man in a lab coat was standing and staring at her in shock, holding the door frame with an iron grip. "What on Earth are you?"

Creepie backed away from the computer and put her hands up in front of her, but the man whirled back to the hallway to shout at the top of his lungs. "Hey! We have an intruder over here!"

Instantly Creepie leapt into action, driven by adrenaline and fear to rush the scientist at full speed. The scientist was so surprised by this move he stumbled back out of her way without even attempting to stop her, and she skidded out into the hallway to spin her way down a random direction. "Hey, hold it!" She heard a man shout from behind her, but she didn't look back, driving her legs as hard as she could through the winding hallways.

"Got you!" Creepie gasped when suddenly a woman barreled out of one of the doors ahead of her, lunging for her without warning, but Creepie's reflexes were fast. She kicked off with one slender leg and her light body practically floated into the air over the woman's outstretched arms. In fact, she realized she stayed in the air longer than she should have as she came down several yards down the length of the hallway, leaving her attacker crashing to the ground while Creepie hit the ground in a sprint.

Creepie cast a glance back to make sure her pursuers were falling far enough behind, and screeched to a stop with a gasp. Spread out right behind her was a beautiful gossamer butterfly wing that seemed to shimmer a muted rainbow of dull black and violet colors in the bright hospital-style lights. Creepie reached back with one hand to touch one, and was surprised to find that she could feel the touch through her lower back, where the wing was attached just above her waist.

At first Creepie was stunned, then she smiled. "Whoa." There wasn't more time to appreciate her evolution though, because she heard several footsteps coming up in front of her as several men approached. These men were clad in black tuxedos, and each wielded a sturdy black baton with an expert grip.

"Hold." A strong voice boomed through the hallway, causing the guards to jump slightly and whirl around. One by one they moved to the side until an older man with silver hair framing an otherwise balding head walked down the center row. He looked like a typical old man, but a set of fierce blue eyes shined from behind a set of spectacles, revealing none of the kindness one would expect of a man like this. He didn't walk like an old man either, walking upright with confidence and a powerful body vaguely visible under his thick lab coat. "Creepie Creecher. I am Dr. Gerald." The man nodded at her. His voice was the one from the room earlier, just before Creepie had molted.

"You're the guy in charge here?" Creepie asked. "Let me go. I have my rights."

"By all rights, my dear, you don't exist." The man shook his head. "But I'm not an evil man, Miss Creecher, no matter how it may seem to you. I have the best interests of the world at heart, and to be frank, you are a key to realms never before even considered in science. Look at what you've become, you are above and beyond everything we hoped to create. Looking at you, the possibilities of what we could accomplish become utterly limitless."

"I don't want anything to do with this." Creepie insisted. "I just want to go home."

"As I said before. You don't have a home, not truly. How can you? Especially now that you can't even pass for the human that you're not." The scientist said. Creepie blinked in surprise, then looked down at her fuzz-covered arms. "Where could you go? What could you become from here but either a nuisance… or a terror?"

Creepie took a deep breath and looked up at him again. "I can become whatever I want. The choice is mine, no matter what I look like." She began to walk toward them slowly. "And if I'm some sort of super-soldier, you can't keep me here."

"Do you think you're a superhero?" The scientist barked out a laugh, though Creepie noticed that the guards were closing around him again, taking up their batons. "You're exceptional, but if you think simply being what you are will allow you to do battle with this many men your mind has been just as warped as your body."

Creepie didn't listen, suddenly breaking into a swift sprint. The pounding of her feet on the cold, slick metal was the only sound in the eerily silent hallway. She twitched experimentally, causing her wings to flutter back and forth against her back, testing how they worked and checking the soft wind in the hallway. The gang in front of her lowered their batons to their waists, as if just waiting for her to try to take flight over them…

So Creepie dove to the floor just in front of them, sliding on her stomach under the legs of the first one and vanishing into the throng of guards. "What!?" "Hey, where did she…!?" "Oh sh-" She heard the men yelling in surprise as she skittered through their legs, kicking off of knees and sliding across the floor on all fours deftly moving between them. The panic didn't last forever though, and soon the men realized they were duped and turned their attention properly downward.

The moment Creepie realized they were on to her, she crouched on the floor and leapt upward like a spring, straight toward one of the men. He yelped in surprise and stumbled back as she grabbed his jacket and shoved her feet into his chest, for a moment hanging off of his front before launching herself over his back, over the heads of the other men while they were still busy looking for her on the floor. Her wings fluttered and began to hum furiously, carrying her the rest of the way over their heads to the empty hallway beyond.

"Up above! She's getting away up above!" The man she'd jumped off of finally got his wits enough to shout, but it was too late. Creepie was already past them, her wings beating rapidly at the air around her to keep her airborne. The group whirled to give chase, running as fast as they could and slowly gaining ground on her, though she was able to keep above them.

For a moment Creepie thought she could do this, but suddenly she began to veer to the right. "Wah!? Oof!" Creepie glanced off of the wall and spun to the floor, moving at such high speeds that she started to slide across the ground with her smooth, slick fuzz.

"We've got-WAH!?" A group of men barreled around the corner in front of her, and quickly had their shins taken out by Creepie's helplessly sliding form. They collapsed to the ground like a group of bowling pins, joined just milliseconds later by the group who had been trailing hot on Creepie's tail. They collapsed over their companions on the floor, shoved by the momentum of those just behind them until most of the guards were tangled up on the floor in a mass of limbs and swear words too large for their companions to get through without climbing on top of them.

Her heart racing, Creepie clawed at the floor and quickly shoved herself up to her feet, seeing an exit just a short distance away now. She turned to look over the men again, seeing Dr. Gerald standing and watching her from the other side with his hands calmly held behind his back. His lips moved as if he was saying something, but she couldn't hear him over the groans of his guards, who were beginning to untangle themselves from the mass of bodies.

Rather than wait for them to start after her again, Creepie stepped back, then whirled to charge for the exit as fast as she could. She was home free now, all she had to do was find her way back home…

TOMORROW: Chapter 11: Flying From the Nest


	11. Flying From the Nest

Chapter 11: Flying From the Nest

The Middlington sky had brightened considerably, with the dull gray clouds fluttering away into the distance to allow the powerfully bright sun to shine down on the slick city streets. It created the illusion of the city glittering like a soft jewel, while on the outskirts of town even the moisture on the grass on the soft rolling hills that surrounded the town seemed to glitter, and actually felt pretty good between the toes of the small figure who approached the town, her breath coming in soft gasps as she doubled over to rest with her elbows on her knees.

"Flying is sure a lot harder than dad makes it look." Creepie reached back with one hand to stroke one of her wings, which was hanging down limply against her side. It had taken a while to get the hang of using her wings, and even now she found she couldn't fly for more than a few minutes without feeling like they were on fire. Still, they allowed her to cover ground quickly, and a journey that would have taken a very long time on foot was almost finished in three hours. "Well, at least the walk is over… maybe I can get to Skipper without anyone seeing me. He'll understand… I hope."

Creepie hesitated for a moment, then took a deep breath and started the walk down toward the town. The tips of her long gossamer wings brushed lightly over the top of the moist blades of grass as she walked. She approached the edge of the city away from the main roads and began to walk around the close fringe of the city, letting her sharp fingertips brush across the walls of the buildings idly as she walked.

Making sure she wasn't seen, she made it around the town to the hills that led up to the forest, and more importantly, to where Skipper's modestly sized mansion stood. Creepie crept up to the back door and rapped her knuckles on the door lightly, but didn't hear any response at first. "Skipper? Skipper's mom?" Creepie called softly. "Please open the door. I need your help." She leaned her ear against the door, then pulled back and knocked again almost desperately. "Come on, I don't have anywhere else to go. I can't even get home without someone seeing me…"

She stepped back slightly when she heard the doorknob turn and the door began to swing open. There, staring out at her was a set of six multifaceted eyes, gleaming at her like jewel from a hairy face that ended in a set of vicious, disgusting mandible that dropped saliva to the ground like acid before the nightmarish figure. Creepie looked down calmly at one of the drops of saliva, then smiled upward. "Hello, Skipper's mom."

"Creepie!" Skipper's mom raised one of her forelegs and placed it on Creepie's shoulder to pull her inside. "Oh, I'm so glad you're safe."

"Wait… you can recognize me?" Creepie asked. "I look kind of different…"

"It's your eyes, dear." Skipper's arachnid mother smiled as gentle a smile as a massive spider could. "They're still as beautiful as ever."

Creepie allowed herself a small smile, then remembered that there were serious matters to take care of. "Is Skipper here? Did he make it back safely? Did my ruse work?"

"Skipper's fine, dear. He's upstairs with your friends right now. I think they said they had some sort of research to do." The arachnid replied. "Oh, you've got to go see your mother, she's been worried sick about you. Your entire family has."

"They heard I was taken…?" Creepie asked.

"How could they not notice?" The arachnid asked. "You've been gone for nearly a week."

"A week!?" Creepie's eyes darted open in surprise.

"Yes, and we've all been doing our best to search for you, but we didn't know where to look. This research effort of theirs is the latest scheme they've come up with. Oh, they'll be so happy to see that you've come back."

"I should go see my friends. Look, I can't go into town like this, do you think you could tell my parents I'm okay? I know you have ways to move around the city if you want to." Creepie noted.

The spider smiled again and nodded. "Indeed I do, if you'll agree to babysit my little darlings while I'm away." The spider turned away from her to look into the living room, where a massive throng of tiny black spiders were covering the walls and furniture like a hairy carpet watching cartoons on the large TV set against the wall. "I don't think they'll be any trouble."

"I'll keep an eye on them, don't you worry. I'm used to watching my cousins all the time." Creepie reassured her.

"Of course you are. Such a kind, responsible girl." The spider wrapped one foreleg around Creepie and pulled her up against her thorax, crushing her against the bone-hard exterior. "I'm sure you'll be a wonderful mate for my Skipper."

"Uh…" Creepie blushed. "We'll see…" She coughed as Skipper's mother released her. "Be careful out there."

"I know how to take care of myself, Creepie. Just you worry about yourself and my boy." The spider winked three eyes and turned to leave the house, leaving Creepie to close the door behind her and glance back at the swarm of babies sitting in the next room. If nothing else, Creepie thought to herself, she would at least be safe here. There was no way the men from the Rembrandt Corporation would dare come back after being swarmed last time, and attempting to fumigate the house without warning would probably be more noticeable than a chase through the city. Not to mention it would poison the kids as well, and leave them with a lot of explaining to do.

Confidently Creepie turned to head up the short flight of stairs to the second floor, where she made her way down the long hallway to Skipper's bedroom and rapped lightly on the door. "It's open," she heard Skipper respond instantly. Creepie gripped the knob and pushed the door open, stepping inside. She was surprised to see that Skipper was sitting at his computer in his normal clothes, flanked by Budge and Chris-Alice on either side. They all looked at her with wide eyes when she entered.

"C… Creepie?" Skipper stood up shakily.

"Is that you?" Budge asked in open-mouthed awe.

"Yeah, it's me." Creepie blushed, unused to getting so much attention. "I guess I owe you guys an explanation…"

"An explanation? Creepie, I'm just so glad you're okay!" Skipper rushed forward, and before Creepie could think to react he had his arms around her, holding her tightly against him in a powerful hug. In the back of her mind Creepie noticed that she was now standing as tall as he was, in the front of her mind she realized she was being hugged by her boyfriend… and it felt nicer than it ever had before. She couldn't help a gentle smile as she hugged him back, closing her eyes. "Where were you, Creepie?"

"Some sort of facility miles and miles outside of town. It took me hours to get back." Creepie replied without pulling away from him. "A computer there said it was run by the Rembrandt Corporation."

"Rembrandt?" Budge seemed to snap back to reality. "Are you serious? Those guys are serious business Creepie, they're funded by the government!"

"What?" Creepie finally broke away from the hug so she and Skipper could both look at Budge. "Are you sure?"

"I'll double-check, but I'm pretty sure." Budge turned and rushed back to the computer, which Skipper had left on.

Creepie watched him work on the computer for a moment, then noticed Chris-Alice was unusually quiet and reserved. "Is something wrong, Chris-Alice?" Creepie asked.

"Um, Creepie, you're uh…" Chris-Alice trailed off.

"Weird? Freaky? A hideous inhuman thing?" Creepie suggested with a hint of acid in her voice.

Chris-Alice glanced around as if making sure nobody was trying to spy on her, then leaned close to whisper, "naked." Creepie blinked and looked down at herself, realizing that despite her skin being covered by the insect-like hairs, she really wasn't wearing any clothes. Creepie's cheeks turned red instantly and her arms shot down to cover herself while Skipper quickly whirled away from her, his face so red she thought it might burst.

"But don't worry! I can go get some clothes from your house! So you'll be a modestly dressed freaky insect thing!"

"How comforting." Creepie grumbled in embarrassment before suddenly realizing something important. "Wait, from my house? I don't think…"

"It's okay, Creepie. We already told her." Skipper said without turning around. "She knows everything."

"Oh really?" Creepie eyes Chris-Alice sharply. "You'll believe THEM but you wouldn't believe ME, huh?"

"I thought you were going loco, sorry!" Chris-Alice blushed. "Besides, the giant talking spider downstairs agreed with them, and one does not call a giant talking spider a liar."

"Important words of life wisdom." Skipper mumbled, prompting a chuckle from Creepie.

"Don't worry, I think I just have the perfect idea! I'll be right back!" Chris-Alice grinned and turned to dart out of the room, leaving Creepie standing naked in a room with two boys who were desperately trying not to look in her direction.

For a moment Creepie pursed her lips, then said. "I'm going to go lock myself in the bathroom."

"Sounds like a plan." Skipper replied before Creepie turned to rush out of the room.

Creepie had plenty of time to get over her embarrassment by the time Chris-Alice reappeared bearing an important gift, the dress Budge had given her for her birthday. This was good, because while everything else now seemed uncomfortably tight in her just-slightly-larger body, the dress now fit like a glove. It hugged her arms tightly down to her elbows and was tighter around her more matured chest, while the bottom stopped at her knees like a fairy, an image only heightened by the fact that they cut a hole in the back to allow her wings to flutter free behind her. The dress was still held together in the back by the extended collar that still framed her head in blackness, making her look like the wicked witch of butterfly fairies.

"Wicked." Creepie grinned when she saw herself in the mirror, letting her wings fluttering slightly to blow her dress around her body. The silver webbing on the dress glittered almost in unison with the sparkling violet gossamer wings on her back.

"You look gorgeous, Creepie." Chris-Alice sighed in admiration. "You're the most beautiful hairy thing in the world."

"Absolutely beautiful…" Skipper agreed with an almost dreamy smile. Creepie was tempted to blush, but Budge interrupted with a large, strong hand on her shoulder.

"I'm glad to have you back Creepie… but if we want you to stay back, we have to do something about the people who're after you."

"You're right." Creepie shook her head clear and turned to her friend with an air of seriousness about her. "Did you find some information that can help us? Maybe some evidence we can use against these people?"

"Not exactly… but I did find something that can be a good source of evidence." Budge turned to walk back to the computer. Their curiosity piqued, Creepie, Chris-Alice and Skipper followed behind him until they were all peeking over his broad shoulders at the computer screen. "Out of curiosity I checked the name Maria Suarez against local records… but while it didn't find anything, I did find a Mario Suarez. His last known act was to purchase a building in this city, preventing it from being sold until very recently when the lease was up."

"What building?" Chris-Alice asked curiously.

"Dweezwold." Budge tapped a few keys and a picture of the building's buyer came up. It looked like a Latin-American man with short brown hair wearing a thick trench coat and a serious grimace on his face, but held in one arm was a baby… a familiar pudgy baby with extremely large eyes and blue hair. "Mario left a forwarding address for his mail, and was never heard from in this city again."

Chris-Alice shook her head in realization. "So… she left a trail. She left a trail from Dweezwold…" Skipper, Chris-Alice and Budge all looked at Creepie, who was staring at the picture, almost in shock.

Creepie looked up after a moment. "Maria left me a trail… let's follow it."

"But how do we get there? I don't think my parents or Budge's will agree to drive us to another town for no reason." Chris-Alice pointed out.

"I think my mom might be of some assistance here, if we're lucky." Skipper grinned and rubbed his hands together in front of him. "Just let me get dressed and once she gets back we can be on our way.

…

"When baby spiders hatch from their eggs, sometimes they spin themselves thin web parachutes they use to travel far away from the nest and begin their new lives." Creepie spoke with some authority on the subject, being intimately familiar with the subject of arachnid behavior, along with every other creature in the insect kingdom. "See, it works because their bodies are so light and the web is actually heavier than they are, so a decent wind can easily carry them through the air. Of course, that leaves them vulnerable for predators…"

"That's-that's wonderful, Creeps." Budge gulped from close behind her. "Fascinating, really, but, y'know…" He panted nervously. "I don't think HUMANS were ever meant to do this!" He shouted, his voice nearly approaching panic as he clutched at the massive network of webs that floated in the breeze above him.

Creepie, Skipper, Chris-Alice, and Budge were all floating serenely through the sky high above the ground, being born on a stiff, powerful breeze that pushed them along so fast the ground below them was passing by as if they were in a plane.

"Hey, if a normal spider-web can carry an insect, a giant spider web can carry a person." Creepie shrugged.

"I wouldn't suggest otherwise either." Skipper smirked, his six-armed suit holding onto his own web chute with six tight grips. "Pointing out how wrong this is could make the universe change its mind on the matter." Budge squeaked in fear and clutched tighter at the thick lines that held him to his parachute.

"I think it's fun!" Chris-Alice grabbed her thinner strand of web and pushed at it, making her start spinning around in a tight circle. "Wheeeeee!"

"Relax Budge." Creepie gave her friend a comforting look. "I trust Skipper's mother. If she thinks this will work, I believe that it's perfectly safe."

"Easy to say that when you have wings…" Budge grumbled sourly under his breath, but Creepie brushed it off. People tended to say strange things when they were paralyzed by fear.

"At least 'Mario' didn't move far from Middlington." Creepie looked down at the ground far below them, and noticed a line of buildings looming in the distance. They were approaching the next town and their destination. "Everyone cut your first line to get us started going back down." Creepie reached up and tugged on a strand of web, pulling it loose from the small harness of webbing that held her so that she began to drift down toward the ground.

Skipper released one of his strands of web from his bundle, since he didn't need the harness to hang from, though Budge gulped and seemed to mutter a quick prayer before snapping his as well. Creepie looked up after a moment to see Chris-Alice still swinging limply in her chute, her face green while her deep brown eyes spun around her head. "Chris-Alice, it's time to start going down, or you could get blown off-course. The wind could change any time." Creepie warned her sternly.

"R-right." Chris-Alice put one hand against her spinning head. "One-one web going bye-bye." Her hand reached up and gripped one of the webs attached to her.

"Chris-Alice!" Creepie, Budge, and Skipper all shouted in unison as Chris-Alice's hand tugged on the main line that connected her harness to the chute, releasing her from its grip altogether.

"Whaaaa!" Chris-Alice shrieked and swung down from the hand still gripping the line, the line slipping off of her body to flutter away from her in the breeze while she dangled by one hand from the web chute. "Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh!" Chris-Alice shrieked in a panic with her legs flailing blindly in the air.

"Chris-Alice! Try to come this way!" Skipper scurried further up his parachute, since he was the only one who wasn't restrained by a harness. His six-armed suit made it easy for him to hold on and reach out as far as he could toward Chris-Alice. But though he could get right under her, he was still drifting downward while she was only moving higher with the added weight of the harness lost. "Listen, you're going to have to let go and let me catch you!"

"WHAT!?" Chris-Alice screamed. "Let go!?"

"I said I'll catch you!" Skipper yelled back. "If you don't, you'll keep going higher until you can't hold on anymore! Trust me!" Chris-Alice's legs froze in the air and she looked down, as if weighing the options. "When I count to three, you let go and I promise you won't fall all the way down. Okay?"

Chris-Alice took a deep breath, then nodded. "O-okay."

"Okay, on three." Skipper repositioned himself with his back to the web, his two lowest arms clinging to the web while his torso leaned forward, his four upper arms reach to snap out into the air. "One… two… THREE!" Skipper yelled. Suddenly Chris-Alice released the webbing and her body began to fall through the air, her plaid skirt and yellow shirt flowing around her body with the powerful winds as she came down toward Skipper like a stone.

Skipper's upper arms shot out for Chris-Alice's as she reached for him. Creepie watched as if the world was moving in slow motion as their fingers locked and Chris-Alice's body swung downward toward his web, but the momentum of her fall kept pulling her down, and her fingers were jerked out of his grasp. Her eyes went wide as her hands slipped out of his once again, and the world returned to full speed once again as her scream cut the air.

"No!" Skipper yelled in a panic.

"You two keep going!" Creepie yanked the chute off of her harness, shoving her harness off of her as she too began to plummet through the sky after her friend. She gritted her teeth against the pain of the violent winds beating at the thin gossamer wings on her back, tightening her body and trying to use them to force herself to move in the direction of her friend's screams. Chris-Alice was plummeting through the sky almost right in front of her, her arms flailing out at her sides as she fell head-first toward the distant ground.

She'd flown on the way back to Middlington, but she'd stayed close to the ground. She never realized how powerful the winds up here became, especially during a free-fall. She could barely think over the rush of wind in her ears let alone use her wings to fight it, but she refused to give up now. Her wings beat furiously against the wind, striking fast enough to cause a loud buzzing noise and pull her toward her friend.

She stretched out her hands as far as she could, shouting against the wind. "Chris-Alice! Turn around!" Chris-Alice's head spun around, and her eyes widened when she saw Creepie behind her. "Come on Chris-Alice, take my hands!"

"Creepie!" Chris-Alice flapped her arms against the wind, unable to fly but managing to turn herself around enough to reach for her friend. "Oh man, Creepie! What do we do!? We're gonna-!"

"Don't panic! Just grab me!" Creepie gritted her teeth and tried to stretch her arms out, pumping her wings as hard as she could. Her back was starting to strain from the unfamiliar effort, making her entire body quake in response. But her efforts paid off when she felt Chris-Alice grab her arm and yank her in close. Creepie's wings seized up and stopped moving while Chris-Alice wrapped her arms around her neck and pulled up against her torso, screaming in a panic.

"Oh Creepie! If we don't make it out of this, I'm so sorry!" She wailed as they continued to fall. Creepie panted for breath, feeling the wind beating her idle wings. "I'm sorry about that time I tried to change you to impress Skipper! I'm sorry I made you enter that fashion show! I'm sorry I tried to turn you over to Miss Monserat when you told me your secret! I'm sorry I made you join the cheer squad! I'm sorry for all those times my dad tried to murder your family! I'm so, so sorry! Forgive me!" Her tears fluttered from her eyes and vanished into the sky above them.

"Fine, just be quiet and let me concentrate!" Creepie stared over her friend's shoulder at the fast-approaching ground. Trying to steady herself, she took several deep, cleansing breaths, then took one last breath and held it as her wings began to beat again, instantly making her back flare from the pain. Her wings ripped through the air like gunfire, beating back the wind and sending them both hurtling forward toward the town in front of them.

Still the ground approached, however, and Creepie put her legs down to try to stop the blow. Her feet slammed into the dirt beside the road, kicking up a cloud and sending them hurtling back into the wind, though the blow destroyed what precious little balance Creepie had attained. Chris-Alice screamed and clutched her even tighter as they went into a rapid spin, once again hurtling toward the ground, this time unable to stop themselves.

Creepie clutched her friend tightly and buried her face in her shoulder so she didn't have to see the ground approaching again. The impact was jarring, through the two friends refused to let go of one another. Bound together, their bodies bounced across dirt, twigs and rocks for what felt like a very long time before they came to a sudden stop when Creepie's back slammed into something solid, off of which they both bounced and fell to the ground in a jumbled heap.

"Nngh…" Creepie grunted and opened her eyes halfway, almost amazed to be able to open them. "C-Chris-Alice…"

"Creepie?" She felt something stir underneath her, and looked down to find that she was lying on top of Chris-Alice. "Oh… oh Gosh… Creepie… are you okay?"

"I think so…" Creepie grunted and pushed herself off of Chris-Alice, rolling to her back where she could relax and catch her breath without smothering her friend. "Just give me a few minutes… a few minutes to recover…"

"I'm so glad." Chris-Alice sighed with a smile as she knelt down beside Creepie. "I thought I was going to lose you for a second there. I thought I was going to lose myself too… thank you." She looked up at the sky, using one hand to shield her eyes from the sun. "Looks like it'll be a little while before Budge and Skipper hit the ground. We'll have to meet them at Maria's place."

"If we can find it." Creepie grunted and struggled to push herself up from the ground.

Seeing her struggling, Chris-Alice slipped one of Creepie's arms over her shoulders and helped her climb to her feet. "We have the forwarding address, and this is a small town. I'm sure it can't be THAT tough." Chris-Alice turned with her toward the town with a confident smile. "Come on, it's about time we got you your family reunion."

TOMORROW: Chapter 12: 14 Years of Silence


	12. 14 Years of Silence

Chapter 12: 14 Years of Silence

The sky was still overcast, but not so much that there weren't plenty of people wandering the streets of this small neighbor town of Middlington's. People hustled this way and that along their normal business… that is, until they saw the strange, hairy creature seated in one of the benches in front of a local bus station, leaning back gratefully against the seat. Her back hadn't quit throbbing since the impact outside of town, and even worse, it was a vaguely unfamiliar sort of pain. It didn't feel like a bruise, it felt like something deeper than that… and that scared her a bit.

Creepie glanced to the side as a child gasped at the sight of her, only to be rapidly hustled in the other direction, even though they had been coming toward her moments ago. "Mommy, what is that? It's scary!" The child squealed amid the "sshh"ing of her mother until they disappeared around the corner of the block. Creepie watched them with a curious gaze, then turned her head to look out across the street until she heard her best friend's footsteps approach the bench.

"I got directions to Maria's address." Chris-Alice plopped herself down on the bench beside Creepie, putting her hands on her knees with a paper resting in her lap. "It's just a few blocks from here, so we can rest a little longer if your back is still bothering you."

"I scare little children, now." Creepie noted.

She could hear the smile in Chris-Alice's voice. "You've always scared children, Creepie."

"True." Creepie smirked. "My target range is just older now, is all." She looked around at the passing pedestrians, whose eyes all seemed to be locked on her up until she looked in their direction, when they quickly shifted forward again. Even the drivers who went by at least glanced in her direction, if they didn't outright stare at her the entire time they were passing. One driver was so distracted his car came a foot from plowing into one in the next lane before he caught himself. "Something tells me you were right before, Chris-Alice."

"I was? About what?" Chris-Alice asked in surprise.

"Nothing's going to be the same after this is over." Creepie shook her head. "I won't be able to have any secrets… people can just look at me and see how different I am. What if I'm not even able to hide my family anymore? What if…" Creepie looked down at the street and folded her arms across her suddenly churning stomach. "I don't know if I can do this anymore Chris-Alice. I don't know if I even want to find Maria."

"What!?" Chris-Alice's eyes went wide. "We came all this way! We've been through so much just because you did want to find her! YOU'VE been through so much!"

"I know, but I just… don't want her to see me like this. We don't even know if she's really there, anyway. Maybe if we just go straight to the police they can find enough evidence with just me. I mean, look at me, someone had to do this…"

"Creepie, stop." Creepie's felt a pair of hands grab her shoulders as Chris-Alice stood up in front of her, glaring down into her face. "This isn't just about the Rembrandt Corporation. It's about you, Creepie 

Creecher, and as your best friend I am not about to let you walk away from the chance to find your biological mother because you're nervous. I understand…" Chris-Alice's eyes softened and she gave Creepie a smile as her hands moved down to take Creepie's. "But you can't give up, Creepie, especially not now."

"She might not be there… they could be waiting for me there." Creepie pointed out.

"That doesn't matter. Never say die when you can try, Creepie, so let's keep trying. Here." Chris-Alice leaned down to take one of Creepie's arms and sling it over her shoulder. Creepie grunted through clenched teeth as her back lifted from the bench, and she found herself leaning upright against her friend's side. "I'll carry you the whole way if I have to. You are going to meet your mother today, and everything will be just fine, I know it will."

"Thanks, Chris-Alice." Creepie leaned gratefully against her friend as they turned to walk down the sidewalk again. The pedestrians on the sidewalk gave them a very wide space to themselves, almost as if there was a bubble keeping them apart. Creepie watched them walk by with a dull gaze, noticing that their steps sped up once they were past her.

Creepie tried not to pay attention to anyone else as they walked through the small town, turning a couple of times down different streets with Chris-Alice checking her piece of paper with her free hand periodically, which Creepie now saw had a short list of directions scribbled on it. The crowds on the sidewalk thinned until they disappeared entirely when the two of them entered one of the domestic sections of the city, walking in front of the lines of houses until suddenly Chris-Alice came to a stop and looked up at a small house on the side of the street that was identical to the rest.

Chris-Alice didn't even glance at Creepie before pulling her along past the car in the driveway up to the door in front of the building. Creepie thought to make a break for it, but her back was still too sore to get far before Chris-Alice caught up with her. Besides, she knew Chris-Alice was right. No matter how nervous she was, no matter how tight the ball in her stomach wound itself, she had to go through with this. It was why she was here, it was why she'd gone through everything up to this point. If she ran away now everything she'd gone through up to now had been completely pointless.

Chris-Alice approached the door and without even glancing at Creepie, knocked firmly on the wooden door. The two friends stepped back to wait, watching the door with bated breath for any sign of movement. It was a sound first, footsteps stopping just on the other side of the door, followed by the soft click of a lock being opened. Then as the two friends watched with wide eyes, the doorknob turned and the door swung inward.

A woman looked down at them, her deep brown eyes flitting back and forth between them from behind the rims of a pair of broad round-rimmed glasses. Her hair was black and only hung down to the top of her neck, but her skin was the same soft mocha color as the woman from the picture. She was wearing a pair of old worn jeans underneath a deep blue t-shirt with several dirt stains on it. Creepie might have never known this was the same woman if it wasn't for her eyes. They were the same despite the other changes and the lines that dotted her aging face.

"Miss Suarez?" Chris-Alice asked curiously. The woman's eyes shot to her for a moment, then turned back to Creepie again, as if instantly comprehending the situation.

"Are you hurt?" The woman asked Creepie.

Creepie blinked in surprise. "My back… it hasn't stopped hurting since I crashed outside of town."

"Come inside, quickly." The woman stepped aside and pulled the door wide open. Creepie and Chris-Alice exchanged a long glance, then nodded at each other and went inside the small, but cozy, house. The woman closed the door behind them, then approached Creepie. "Remove your dress, and I'll see what I can do for your back." Creepie had to admit to being nervous, but the woman didn't seem suspicious. If anything, she seemed like a doctor who was more concerned for her patient's safety than anything else.

So Creepie complied, and she found herself lying face-down on the sofa while Maria pushed against her back. Creepie winced and her wings twitched in pain, but the touch lightened in another moment as her hands moved across her back. Creepie turned her head to the side to watch her work as the woman looked over her back, then glanced up at her face.

"Do you have a name?" Maria asked suddenly.

"Creepie." Creepie replied. "Creepie Creecher." Maria nodded silently, taking in the information with no outward reaction.

The examination continued for a while until the woman stood to approach the wall, where a small table stood with a few medical implements scattered across its surface. "Well, for one thing you seem to have some sort of sub-exoskeleton unlike anything I've ever seen before." Maria spoke as she snatched a roll of tough white bandages from the table and walked back over to Creepie. "It's like a bone shell that protects your internal organs. It's not unusual for insects, particularly arachnids, but yours is enveloped by a coat of human skin. It's really quite fascinating." She knelt down beside the sofa and pulled Creepie up carefully to a sitting position. Creepie grunted as Maria pushed on her back. "Try to keep your back straight. The impact cracked the exoskeleton, but I think it should heal okay on its own. These bandages will help take the pressure off, and I'll give you something for the pain."

"That's good!" Chris-Alice sighed in relief as Maria wrapped the bandages around Creepie's stomach. "I was beginning to worry there was something seriously wrong with her. Of course I should have known mother would know best."

Marie paused in wrapping the bandages to shoot a glance at Chris-Alice. "I've done nothing to earn that title. Just call me Maria."

Chris-Alice blinked, for once at a loss for words. "O… okay…"

Maria cut the bandages with a pair of small sheers and secured it in place, then looked up at Creepie's eyes with a gentle smile. "You can put your dress back on, and try to lie down while I go get you your medicine and something to drink." Maria stood from the floor and turned to head into the kitchen.

"We found her, Creepie." Chris-Alice snatched Creepie's dress from the arm of the couch and approached Creepie with a smile. "No matter what she wants to be called, she's still your mother, right?"

"Maybe…" Creepie stared after the woman blankly, hardly able to believe it. She was here, right here, acting as if there was nothing strange happening. Creepie kind of wanted it to stay this way, but her mind was still reeling with unanswered questions, questions that Maria could answer in a heartbeat. No… she couldn't leave it like this. She had to know why.

Creepie grunted and lifted herself off of the sofa with Chris-Alice's help. Her dress swayed against her knees as she walked slowly toward the kitchen. Chris-Alice kept a tight grip on her arms the whole way to make sure she didn't stumble and hurt herself even more.. They made it to the entrance into the kitchen, where Creepie stopped to watch Maria pouring a pitcher of water into a tall, ice-filled glass.

Maria turned toward them, and stopped when she saw Creepie in the doorway. "You should be lying down."

"What happened?" Creepie demanded in a soft voice. "I get most of it… I was made by the Government, trying to use insect DNA to make some sort of soldier or super person… the only thing I don't know is how I got to Dweezwold or… why you left."

Maria stared at her solemnly for a long moment, then nodded. "Those must be very important questions to you. Please, lie down and I'll do my best to answer them. And here…" She approached and held the tall glass out in front of her with a couple of pills in her other hand. Creepie took the glass from her with a soft 'thank you' and they turned to head back into the living room. She popped the pills into her mouth without question and washed them down with a few sips of water.

Soon Creepie was settled back onto the couch again, sitting up this time and leaning against the well-cushioned arm of the sofa. Chris-Alice was sitting beside her with her legs crossed on the couch cushion, her hands resting in her lap while she paid close attention to Maria, who was sitting on the soft recliner she had pulled in front of the sofa. Creepie could feel her heart racing in her chest, eager to finally learn the full truth.

"15 years ago, I graduated from Harvard State University with the highest marks any woman had ever received… my knowledge in chemistry and biology made me an ideal candidate for them to approach to help them with their research." Maria spoke in a soft voice, as if reminiscing about a happy memory long past. "They were so impressed by my marks that they told me I would be one of the heads of their project, even though they didn't tell me what kind of project it was until after I had agreed to it. Once I found out… I will admit, I had no reservations."

"It was research in my eyes. Once we had developed what could be a working test sample, we then needed a host to carry the project to term…" Maria looked down, her eyes not meeting Creepie's for an instant. "It needed to be someone with a strong genetic base, and who could tell if something began to go wrong. It was decided that I would be the best candidate… I accepted it, even welcomed it. In the name of science, of course…"

"As the pregnancy progressed however I couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. I didn't feel any different, and the data that came from it was extraordinary, but watching them poke and prod my stomach, poke and prod the specimen inside, began to upset me. I grew angry and irrational, and they probably would have pulled me off the project if I wasn't so important to it. But we were too far along to go back now… I was too far along to go back, no matter how much I began to realize what the specimen was in for."

Maria closed her eyes with her hands resting in her lap, still looking cool and collected though her voice was quivering slightly. "As I watched them study the specimen, I realized that it would never truly be a person… either in their eyes or to the world. I tried to brush it off as a chemical reaction to the pregnancy, a weak feeling I could overcome as a scientist, but on the day the specimen was due to be born I was so nervous I almost ran out of the facility."

"Then she was born… then there you were." Finally Maria turned to look Creepie in the eyes with tears forming in her own. "For just a few minutes they gave you to me, let me hold you and look at you, and I realized fully what I had done to you. You would have no friends, you would have no family, you would have no future beyond what they allowed you to have. And then, just as it dawned on me, they took you away and though I remained on the project, they never let me see you again."

"I monitored your progress from a distance. Waited to see what the results would bring, and though we learned so much from you it never made me happy. Your body was like a wellspring of new insight into the human genetic code, and the properties you possessed could have led us to advance the fields of genetic engineering and perhaps even new medicines even further than the science that had created you… but when I listened to the others talk about these things, all I heard was that you would still be there in captivity 10, 20, 30 years down the road."

"I couldn't take it anymore." Maria shook her head and lowered her eyes again to dab them with a handkerchief she plucked from a box on the table beside her. "I had to get you out, but I didn't know where. Our company was funded by the Government, they would have found you anywhere, with anybody. They would have stopped at nothing. I had to put you somewhere nobody would ever find you, someplace nobody would ever in a million years think to look. Who would ever think to look for you in a house in which no human lived?"

"Dweezwold…" Creepie whispered.

Maria nodded. "I prepared by buying Dweezwold Manor, knowing full well that the only life in the place was the insects who had moved in. I hoped and prayed that your special properties would allow those insects to accept you, to take care of you away from human civilization where they couldn't find you. I hoped you would be happy, but not a day has gone by that I haven't wondered…" She closed her eyes tightly and shook her head. "Wondered if I left you on that doorstep to starve…"

"You were right." Creepie smiled and grunted as she pushed herself up from the couch, standing in front of the chair. "They took great care of me. My mom, dad, even my brothers have all been good to me. You don't have to worry anymore." Maria nodded against the handkerchief, looking at Creepie over the top of her hand. "But those men, the others who wanted to keep me locked up… they found me. They're after me."

"What?" Maria looked at her in surprise and horror, lowering her handkerchief down into her lap. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, and I found something on a computer that said they were looking for you too." Creepie nodded.

"Oh, Creepie…" Maria shook her head. "I'm sorry, I never wanted you to know any of this. I'd hoped you would stay out of human society forever…"

"I had to get out of there someday." Creepie told her. "Right now, though, we just need to take care of the Rembrandt Corporation. Now that it's all out in the open, maybe we can go to the police. With your statement and the evidence we could lead them to at the lab, there's no way they'd be able to fight it."

"Yes, you're right." Maria nodded. "I have everything we could need against them." Creepie glanced over at Chris-Alice with a satisfied smile, to which Chris-Alice responded with an eager grin. "Let me gather my things, I'll do everything I can to get you out of this."

"Thank you." Creepie nodded up at her birth mother and watched her turn to head into the back of the house. It was kind of strange, Creepie thought to herself, that even though this had all started with her searching for her birth parents she didn't really think of this woman as her mother. She was just Maria… There was only room in her life for one mother. She already had the best mother she could ask for, after all. Even so, it was nice to know where she came from… and it was nice to know Maria had cared.

"We did it, Creepie." Chris-Alice walked up beside her and rested an arm on her shoulders. "We found your mother, and soon we'll be rid of the people who're trying to take you away!"

"Yeah… you're right." Creepie gave her friend an uncharacteristically optimistic smile. "Things are going to be just fine."

Creepie and Chris-Alice both jerked toward the door when it shuddered from the force of a tremendous impact, jerking inward. They stepped back in surprise, huddling a little closer together, but Creepie blinked when she heard a familiar voice through the door. "M-Miss Suarez! Creepie! Chris-Alice! Is anybody here!? Anybody! C-huff, huff, huff…" It sounded like Budge was trying to catch his breath against the door.

"Budge?" Creepie rushed to the door and flung it open, then had to leap to the side to avoid her massive friend as he collapsed to the floor, his body gasping for air and glistening with sweat. "Budge, what happened to you? Are you okay?"

"Couldn't… move in the air…" Budge gasped out tiredly. "Couldn't get away… huff-huff… couldn't do anything… l-let me go… to get to… you… huff…"

"Get to me?" Creepie glanced out the door, seeing the yard and sidewalk outside empty. Her eyes went wide and she looked down at her friend again. "Budge, where's Skipper?"

"C… couldn't do anything…" Budge panted and held up a small crumpled up piece of paper he pulled from one of his jeans pockets. "I'm sorry Creepie…"

Creepie took the piece of paper and read it, her hands beginning to shake after a moment.

"Creepie?" Chris-Alice asked nervously. "What's wrong?"

Creepie shook her head and lowered the note to her side, looking over at her read headed friend with an expression of disbelief. "They want me and Maria to come to their facility… in exchange for Skipper."

TOMORROW: Chapter 13: Kiss of Hope


	13. Kiss of Hope

Chapter 13: Kiss of Hope

"I'm sorry Creepie, I'm so sorry." Budge sunk down into the back seat of the old beat up Cadillac as it raced down the freeway that connected this town to Middlington. "I wanted to do something, but I froze, and before I knew what was going on, they'd already taken him."

"You couldn't have done anything, Budge. It's okay." Creepie shook her head in the passenger's seat, watching the road around them zoom past in a blur of motion. She glanced away from the window over at Maria, who was in the driver's seat holding the wheel with a white-knuckled grip. "How long do you think it'll take you to get back to Middlington and get the police out here?"

"A few hours at least. Are you sure you want to do this?" Maria looked over at her with an expression of concern on her face. "You could come back with us, and we could all go to the police."

"We wouldn't he there before the deadline. Besides, if we come walking up with a police unit, they could do something to Skipper. I want to make sure nothing happens to him." Creepie stared up at the woman beside her with a look of determination on her own face. "I'm not going to let Skipper get hurt because of me."

Maria stared at her for a moment, then gave her a gentle smile. "Your parents did a good job of raising you, Creepie."

"Yeah… yeah, they did." Creepie looked out the window again, watching the terrain pass until the car began to slow, and finally come to a stop by the side of the dusty country road.

"The facility should be just further down in that direction from here. I know the way well, believe me." Maria looked down at Creepie. "I know I haven't been there, and I have no right to give you motherly advice, but please, be careful Creepie."

Creepie nodded. "I will." She turned to open her car door and dropped to the ground outside, but she blinked and turned in surprise when she heard the car's back doors open as well.

"Creepie, you don't have to…" Chris-Alice approached from the back door of the dull red Cadillac, wringing her hands in worry. "Please, come back with us. Skipper will be fine, but they could do all sorts of horrible things to you. They did… did THIS-" Chris-Alice's hands gestured to Creepie's long, hairy body. "Who knows what they could do this time? You don't even know that you could do anything for Skipper even if you did go. What if… what if…" Her eyes lowered to the ground nervously.

"Chris-Alice." Creepie reached up, putting a hand on her friend's chin to make her meet her gaze once again. "Never say die when you can try. Right?" Creepie gave her friend a slight smile.

Chris-Alice stared back for a moment, then flashed her a sad smile as a tear began to wind its way down her cheek. "Yeah… that's right." She leaned forward and wrapped up Creepie in a tight hug, sniffling against the side of her head. "Just be careful, Creepie. I want you back no matter what you are or what you look like."

"Thanks, Chris-Alice." Creepie smiled genuinely before pulling away from her friend after a few moments had passed.

She then turned to Budge, who approached her with a strangely blank expression on his face. "Budge? Are you-ACK!" Creepie yelped as his thick arms suddenly swept her off the ground up against his broad chest, squeezing her so tight she could feel her exoskeleton beginning to cave in on several vital organs. "Buuueeee… hhaaaaaa…" Creepie gasped for breath.

"Be careful, Creepie." Budge spoke with a strained voice, as if he was furiously fighting back tears. "Just be careful."

"Ooookaaaayyyyyhhhaaaa…" Creepie panted in pain, then gasped when she heard something in her back crack. She wasn't sure if it was her spine or her exoskeleton, but she did know she was released when Budge finally set her back down on the ground, wobbling back and forth for balance as if the Earth had suddenly become a see saw.

"Um… sorry." Budge smiled sheepishly and grabbed her shoulders to help her steady herself.

"Don't worry about it." Creepie put her hands on her back and pushed, straightening it out with a pop that sounded horrible, but actually made her feel better. "Oh, there we go." Creepie turned to look at her two friends, who were watching her with a two pairs of matching wide, wet eyes. "Go on guys… get out of here. I'll be back, I promise." Seeing that her friends had no intention of getting back in the car, Creepie gave them a slight wave and turned to leave herself, walking out across the grassy field in the direction of the facility.

She didn't look back, she didn't want to see them fading into the distance behind her. That wasn't necessary however, since after a while of walking she heard the sound of the car's engine rev up and begin to move off. As it moved she allowed herself one more glance back, watching the car move rapidly down the empty road away from her. She caught a glimpse of Chris-Alice and Budge in the back seat watching her through the rear window before they moved too far for her to see anymore, and soon the entire car faded from view.

Creepie took a deep breath and turned forward again, walking once again across the grass. The wind out here where there were no buildings or trees to get in the way was strong and refreshing, blowing through her dress and the hairs on her body in a pleasant manner. Her wings fluttered softly in the winds, beating lightly against one another as her legs took the distance one step at a time. She could have flown again, but she was in no hurry to reach the facility. If these people were working for the government, they had to already know she was coming, and she was stalling for time until Maria could get the police down here.

The sun was drifting slowly down toward the horizon by now, making the brilliant blue sky fade into a bright orange pallor that seemed to sweep across the grassy field like a sea of flames. Creepie was starting to wonder if Maria had been wrong about the facility's location when she noticed on top of the hill ahead of her stood three men in white lab coats. On the left stood Dr. Jeddah, the man who had been chasing Creepie in the hospital and then at Skipper's house. On the right was Dr. Angelo, the man who had done the tests on Creepie's blood which had allowed them to identify her. In the center stood Dr. Gerald, the man who ran this entire operation.

The three men waited patiently while Creepie covered the distance between them, only to stop a few yards in front of them.

"I thought you would see reason, Miss Creecher." Dr. Gerald smiled.

"Where is Skipper?" Creepie demanded.

"He's fine." Dr. Angelo spoke up. He looked like he was about to speak again when Gerald interrupted.

"What matters now is you." Dr. Gerald nodded. "You and Maria. We were under the impression you had found her."

"I was wrong. I thought she was there… but she wasn't." Creepie spoke softly, wistfully. Her act was apparently successful, because the three men exchanged a pointed glance.

"A pity… but you are what we really need at this point in time." The Dr. Gerald nodded to Dr. Jeddah and Dr. Angelo, who both moved toward Creepie to stand on either side of her. Creepie watched them with a sharp eye, but they didn't move to touch her. "You should be happy, Miss Creecher, to be a part of the evolution of humanity itself." He winked at her coldly and turned to lead the way across the field again. Angelo and Jeddah followed behind him with Creepie walking between them, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Don't worry about your friend." Angelo whispered so softly his voice was almost lost to the wind. "He's fine."

"Why take him?" Creepie whispered back. "He didn't do anything to anybody."

"It was the easiest way to get you here." Angelo looked nervous for a moment. "I just want you to know you don't have to worry about him. He's okay, you have my word."

"He's not okay if he's been kidnapped." Creepie frowned, feeling more cynical than usual. The acid in her voice made Dr. Angelo wince and fall into silence until they reached what looked like a familiar rock face that stood out amid the otherwise level field.

Gerald led the way up to the rock face. Creepie had escaped through it just a short time ago, and now couldn't suppress a shiver as they approached it once again. The rocks on the side of the cliff swung open at their approach and a pair of guards inside stepped aside to allow the small troupe to walk back into the cold metal corridors beyond. Creepie followed them in, flashing a cocky smile at the guards, who shot her a pair of venomous glares. They must have been in the pileup earlier, Creepie noted.

Gerald turned back to them. "Alright, Dr. Jeddah, take her to-"

"I want to see Skipper first." Creepie demanded.

"You're really in no position to be making demands here." Gerald told her.

"Please, I have to know he's okay. Then I won't argue, I won't resist… I just want to see him." Creepie spoke genuinely.

"It can't hurt." Dr. Angelo insisted beside her. "I'll keep an eye on her the whole time, and bring her to the examination room right after she's finished."

Gerald looked down at Creepie for a moment, then agreed with a nod. "Fine, but try to make it quick. We can't begin research without you, after all."

"Come, this way." Dr. Angelo gestured for Creepie to follow before turning to walk down an adjacent hallway. Creepie turned to follow him, pointedly not looking at Dr. Gerald anymore as she walked through the unfeeling metal hallways. Creepie looked up at Dr. Angelo as they walked, but he didn't even glance at her. She realized she could easily slip away if she wanted to, but something kept here there. She just had to know…

"Why are you doing this?" Creepie asked. "Not much I could've done if you had wanted to make me go now…"

"There's no reason you can't see your friend, and you deserve at least that much." Dr. Angelo looked back at her with a serious look on his face.

Creepie nodded. "Thank you." Angelo nodded at the guard stationed outside the door, who promptly pulled a key out of his pocket, opened the lock and let the door swing inward while he moved out of the way. Creepie walked inside slowly, looking around at the sterile metal interior inside. There were no windows or big furniture in the room, though there was a vent in the ceiling just like in the room she'd woken up in before.

For a moment she didn't see Skipper anywhere, until her eyes settled on the bed, where a lump was lying underneath the sheets. "Skipper!?" Her heart leaping, Creepie rushed to the bed and sat down at Skipper's side as she reached her hands toward his face. He looked like he was sleeping, though his eyes quickly began to flutter when she sat down beside him.

"C-Creepie?" Skipper blinked groggily and looked up at her.

"Are you okay?" Creepie ran one of her palms worriedly over his cheek, staring into his eyes. "Did they hurt you?"

"Nngh…" Skipper groaned painfully. "I'm not sure… we were still coming down when I felt something hit the back of my head. Everything went black and then…" He stared up at her for a moment, then looked around at the room. "Where are we?"

"You know those people who were after me?" Creepie asked. Skipper nodded. "This is their place. They… took you to draw me here."

"What?" Skipper's eyes went wide. "But Creepie… you… you should've…"

"Don't tell me I should've stayed away." Creepie shook her head. "If you think I'd let you just stay here alone you don't know me as well as you think you do." Creepie looked back at the door, then leaned down over him until her lips were a few inches from his ear so she could whisper softly. "Besides, I found Maria, and she's on her way with help. We just have to hold on until they get here." She gently laid one hand on his chest, feeling his deep, quiet breath underneath her palm. "Do you think you can hold out until then?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Skipper nodded with a slight smile on his lips. "Just a slight headache is all…" He turned his head to the side so that they were face to face, staring into each others' eyes bare inches away. "I just hope you're okay when this is all over…"

Creepie flashed him a weak smile, her hand balling into a fist on his chest, clutching at the front of his costume. Without another moment's thought she leaned forward and pressed her lips against his. She felt his lips push back against hers in a soft kiss that lasted for only the briefest of moments before she heard the door open behind her and she pulled away from it. "Just stay here… you'll get out soon enough."

"Be careful, Creepie." Skipper stared at her solemnly.

"Just relax and wait for Maria…" Creepie patted his chest lightly as she stood up straight. She could hear the soft impact of Dr. Angelo's hard shoes hitting the ground, plodding up right behind her. She turned and looked up at him with a slow nod. "I'm ready to go."

"Then please, this way." Dr. Angelo gave her a gentle smile and waved grandly toward the door. Creepie walked past him, casting one last glance back at Skipper as if to make sure he wasn't going to vanish or perish the instant she left the room. Her heart seemed to drop down from her chest, deflating as the guards outside the room yanked the solid metal door closed behind her with a loud clang and slid the lock into place.

Some time later the whir of motors and engines echoed in the tiny metal room as a series of piercing lights swept over Creepie's body in every direction from every angle. She laid on the table unmoving with her wrists and ankles strapped down by thick metal restraints, watching the lights sweep over her and blinking when they moved over her eyes. True to her word she didn't struggle, she just laid on the table and let the lights examine every inch of her body while a pair of voices floated in from the next room, where the three head doctors were watching the results of their tests.

"This is proving extremely difficult." Dr. Jeddah's voice said in exasperation. "Her body seems to have evolved some sort of exoskeletal structure just underneath the upper layer of flesh. It makes getting a clear image of her inner biology almost impossible."

Dr. Angelo spoke next. "Our signals are blocked, but what few spotty images we are getting seem to indicate an extremely radical change. Her vital organs seem to be in the relatively same positions, but there are far more muscles in some areas of her body, particularly her back in the vicinity of her wings."

"Which only makes sense. If a species evolves new organs their bodies will naturally develop new muscle tissue to work them unless they're vestigial which, as we've seen, these are not." Dr. Jeddah continued formally. "But unless we can get underneath this exoskeleton, there may be no way for us to ever know how these muscles connect to the rest of her body, or what potential harm this transformation could cause in future specimen."

"Underneath the exoskeleton?" Dr. Gerald's voice spoke up for the first time since the examination had begun.

"Of course, that would require autopsy-" Dr. Jeddah was interrupted suddenly.

"Now I don't think that's entirely necessary at this stage. There's still so much more we could learn from her without internal scans." Dr. Angelo insisted quickly.

"But we could learn it faster with a clear understanding of her inner biology."

"I still believe the better path to take is to learn all we can from her as she is."

"Why is that, Dr. Angelo?" Dr. Jeddah asked, his voice dripping with a vicious, unspoken accusation. "What possible benefit could she be to us alive that she couldn't be to us on an autopsy table? Our best course from here is to learn all we can about her physiology, and then start anew with a second specimen whose progress we can monitor based on data we gained from this one. Do you disagree?" For a few long, heart-stopping moments there was silence from the next room as Creepie strained to hear what was happening.

"Yes, I do." Dr. Angelo kept up his defiance, but his voice was much calmer than before. "I respectfully disagree, but will of course do whatever our lead scientist deems necessary." There was a long silence after that, then Creepie heard the sound of footsteps approaching the door between the two rooms.

She turned her head to watch Dr. Gerald walk into the room with his two lead scientists walking on either side of him, approaching her bedside with a disarming smile on his face. Dr. Jeddah had an irritated look on his face, but Dr. Angelo almost looked apologetic as he gazed down at Creepie. "It seems we've reached an impasse, Miss Creecher." Dr. Gerald told her with a steady gaze. "Your body is so remarkable we can't even study it like it is. You should be proud."

"I'm thrilled." Creepie replied drolly.

Dr. Gerald turned back to Dr. Jeddah. "Begin your autopsy immediately. I want a full analysis and all of your data on my desk by tomorrow night." He looked over at Dr. Angelo. "Begin seeking a new suitable candidate to carry the next specimen to term."

"Y-Yes sir." Dr. Angelo nodded, casting one more glance at Creepie as Jeddah grabbed the top of her table and turned to push her toward the exit.

Creepie gulped, feeling her heart racing as the wheels on the table skidded across the floor. She flexed her hands nervously, but still didn't struggle as she watched the overhead lights pass her by, trying to think of something she could do. Her arms and legs were still pinned down however, and she had sworn to cooperate. So she closed her eyes, trying to slow her heavy breath despite the fear she felt welling up in her chest.

The table hit a pair of swinging doors, throwing them open so the table could roll a little further to come to a stop. Through her eyelids Creepie saw a powerful light shining from directly above her, and she dared to open them, staring up at the blinding light that seemed to keep the rest of the room shrouded in shadows. Her breath began to pick up again and her heart grew fast when she heard the sound of metal instruments clanging from the darkness.

Her eyes jerked to the left when she saw a blue gloved hand move out of the shadows into the light, holding a sharp, glistening syringe. The hand held the syringe straight up and sent a small spurt of liquid into the air. Despite that, however, the syringe was completely full of some sort of strange blue liquid. "Don't worry, Miss Creecher. You're not going to feel anything, I promise." Dr. Jeddah's other hand moved out of the darkness to grip her arm, holding it still as the syringe approached her arm.

Creepie tried to struggle at last before she felt the needle plunge into her arm, punching through the skin and scraping through the thin layer of bone underneath. She winced in pain and tried to pull her arm away as the syringe's contents emptied slowly into her arm. The syringe was soon empty, and Creepie's racing heart began to slow. She could feel her entire body slowing down, her heart, her breath. As her eyes grew fuzzy, making the world difficult to see, she felt her arms and legs going numb. The last of the light faded away as a strange buzzing noise filled her fading ears.

TOMORROW: Chapter 14: Always Count on Family


	14. Always Count on Family

Chapter 14: You Can Always Count on Family

It was like an instant. As if she blinked and her eyes began to open, but she still couldn't see much. It was as if a dense fog had moved in front of the powerful hospital lights, which were now blinking as a shower of sparks fell from inside. She could feel her heart picking up again, but it was painful, like it was awakening from a long slumber. Even her lungs felt cold and stiff, straining from being asked once again to pull in the air that she found herself gasping for.

"C… Creepie!?" She heard a quiet voice speak from inside of the fog, a familiar, if slightly annoying voice. "Creepie! Hey guys! Creepie's okay!" Paulie's ecstatic yell brought the fog surging down toward her… no, it wasn't a fog, Creepie realized. It was a swarm of insects, everyone who normally stayed inside of Dweezwold seemed to be hovering over her in a mass so thick now that it blotted out the flashing lights above her.

"Paulie…?" Creepie muttered weakly as she tried to wrap her brain around what was happening. "What's going on? Am I…?"

"No, dear." The swarm of bugs above her cleared, opening up a small passage so that her father Vince could hover down toward her, carrying her mother by the shoulders. Carolina's bright yellow eyes were glistening with tears, both shed and waiting to be shed. The two of them landed on her chest, staring up at her face. "It looked like you were… but… it was only hibernation while your body recovered. Only hibernation…" Carolina broke down and rushed her face, wrapping her arms around her chin and leaning against her.

"Mom… what's going on? How did you all get here?" Creepie asked groggily.

"Your little friends told us you were in trouble." Vince approached to lay his hands on Carolina's shoulders comfortingly. "We came as quickly as we could. They're on their way with the human authorities, but we've been trying to keep them away from you for now…" He whirled toward the door when a strange sound came in through the slightly open door. Creepie could see a burst of white foam flying past the door, coupled with the panicked shouts of those insects who were caught in the burst.

"No…" Creepie sat up quickly, feeling her stiff joints quickly loosening as her vision sharpened.

"Creepie, you need your rest. We'll keep them away from you, I promise." Vince told her quickly.

"But they're getting hurt…" Creepie stared out the door as there were more shouts of panic and surprise, but again the insects came back and flew toward the bursts despite the many tiny bodies littering the hallway.

"There's nothing you can do, Creepala. Please, let us protect you." Vince pleaded with her softly, now standing on the table beside her holding his wife in his arms.

Creepie looked down at him, then out into the hallway again, where the bursts of foam continued to blow the insects against the floor and walls, where many lay still, but others lifted themselves up to fly back at the foam once again with tiny yells of fury. Once again they were blown back by a burst of foam, this time from two bursts that covered the entire hallway, blowing back twice as many as before. They hit the ground and walls, grunting desperately and struggling to free themselves from it.

"No!" Creepie jumped up from the bed and rushed toward the door.

"Creepie! Stop!" Carolina shouted in surprised panic.

"Leave them alone!" Creepie rushed out into the hallway, skidding on the foam that she now realized was coming from two men in black suits wielding fire extinguishers. "Stop iiiiit!" Creepie hurled herself at them in a blind fury, bringing her arms up to beat at the left man's stomach. He dropped the fire extinguisher to the ground with a solid bang and blocked her blows with his hands, throwing a punch at her arm to stop her.

Creepie grunted as the blow connected with her shoulder, spinning her into the wall face first where she barely had time to push herself away before the man was on her from behind, wrapping his arms around her torso. "Let go of me! Leave us alone!" Creepie screamed and struggled against his grip though her arms were pinned to her sides. "We didn't do anything to you! Just let us go! Let us-" She was silenced by a thick, powerful hand clamping down over her mouth.

The man who held her stood up straight, holding her back against his barrel chest. "I'll go tell the doctor we have her. You keep the bugs at bay until-GRRAAAAHHHH!" He screamed in pain as Creepie managed to open her mouth around his hand and bite down as hard as she could, latching on like a dog ripping at a meal. The man let her go and gripped the back of her head, pushing her roughly into the wall where she bounced off with a grunt and fell to the floor in a daze.

"Why you little…" The man growled and stood over her angrily, holding his injured hand. "You better… gh… we're… uhn…?" The man groaned suddenly and fell to the ground, his body going limp while his eyes continued to look around in a stunned panic. Creepie stared at him for a moment, then glanced at his hand, where she noticed the bite marks from her teeth had left traces of a yellow liquid leaking down his hand.

Creepie opened her mouth and touched one of the short fangs on the side of her mouth, moving her hand out again to see a similar yellow liquid resting on the tip of her finger. It was paralyzing venom.

She looked up at the second guard, who was staring down at her in shock. Creepie grinned a toothy grin that showed off the venom leaking down her fangs as she rose to her feet, but the man shook his head and blasted her in the face suddenly with his fire extinguisher. Caught off-guard, Creepie stumbled back, coughing and trying to wipe the foam out of her eyes, but to her surprise the man didn't attack, he ran. The sound of his footsteps quickly vanished down the hallway away from her.

"Creepie!" Creepie heard a chorus of tiny voices as she managed to sweep the white gunk out of her eyes, whipping it to the floor. She looked up to see her family hovering in the air around her, many landing on her dress or clinging to her blue hairs.

"Come on guys. I'm not going to wait here until Maria gets back with the police while you guys sacrifice yourselves for me. I'm going to get Skipper and we're all getting out of here! Follow me!" Creepie pointed down the hall and started running. Her family whooped and hollered behind her as they followed swiftly, their combined buzzing filling the otherwise empty and silent corridors. She ran as fast as she could, but quickly realized she had no idea which way Skipper's cell was.

The lights in the hallway were flickering just like the lights in the operating room, and she noticed there were bugs crawling inside of every panel in the ceiling. "Come on guys!" She shouted up at them. "We're getting out of here! Now!" The bugs squealed in agreement and squeezed out of the cracks in the ceiling, hovering down to join the swarm that was following close behind Creepie.

"There they are! Stop them, now!" A man screamed as they saw Creepie and her family approaching. They raised their fire extinguishers, but their blasts had little effect on Creepie, who covered her face with her arms as she leapt through the streams. She then spread her arms, wings, and mouth wide open as she came down on the man on the right, biting deep into his neck as her weight drove him back to the ground. She rolled forward off of him and turned back to the other guard, who had turned to focus on her.

No longer focused on her family, the swarm of insects immediately closed on, biting and chomping at every piece of exposed flesh they could find, crawling into his suit to bite at the unexposed flesh as well. "Waaah! Hey! G-get off of me! HEY!" The guard flailed at the air wildly, dropping the fire extinguisher to the ground and whirling to run from the angry swarm. The bugs yelled in victory and abandoned their assault as he turned the corner down the hallway, coming back to join Creepie.

"Good job guys!" Creepie faced forward again with renewed confidence. "Now come on! Let's find Skipper!" She started forward again, but she only made it two more hallways, collecting those stray bugs who had wandered off to take out the lights or drive away other guards, when she saw Dr. Angelo standing in the middle of the hallway alone. Creepie skidded to a stop and clenched her fists, ready to launch herself at him before suddenly he raised his hands.

"Relax, I'm not going to hurt you, Creepie." Dr. Angelo replied softly. "I'm sorry, for everything."

"Where's Skipper?" Creepie demanded. "We need to get out of here."

"Yes, of course. Time is of the essence. Follow me." The Dr. turned to lead them down the hallway. The combined Creecher family followed close behind him, until Creepie realized the doors they were passing were starting to look familiar. It wasn't much longer before they reached the solid metal door that she knew led into Skipper's cell. There were two guards on either side of the door, but Dr. Angelo waved them aside with one hand. "You're relieved of duty… let us in." The guards exchanged a glance, but stepped aside, though they continued to eye Creepie and her swarm cautiously.

Dr. Angelo swung the door inward and Creepie walked inside, seeing Skipper leaning against the cell wall in the flickering overhead lights. "Skipper!" Creepie rushed over to him.

"Creepie!" Skipper stood and opened all six of his arms to wrap her in the tightest hug she'd ever felt, holding her close. "Creepie, you're okay! I'm so glad you're okay! Man… you've scared the heck out of me so much lately…"

Creepie couldn't help a light chuckle. "Sorry, I'll try not to make a habit of that." She pulled away from him and took one of his top hands, holding it tightly. "Come on, we're getting out of here. My family's here to help." Skipper nodded and they both turned to rush toward the exit, but they both jumped in surprise when a massive blast of white foam launched down the hallway, slamming into the swarm of insects that had been hovering outside.

"Mom! Dad!" Creepie rushed toward the door, but a fire extinguisher swung in before she could get outside, slamming into her chest and knocking her back into Skipper. Six arms wrapped around her, holding her tightly as Dr. Gerald walked in through the door, flanked by half a dozen guards wielding fire extinguishers. He stepped inside with four of the guards, the other two remaining outside, where they closed the door with the click of a lock.

"You're just full of surprises, Miss Creecher." Dr. Gerald told her calmly. "Bringing insects under your control… it's an ability that doesn't exist in nature." He approached her slowly, with his four men moving to surround Creepie and Skipper, who moved closer together in response, their arms wrapped around each other. Outside the door, they could hear the fire extinguishers blasting again and again, along with the sound of brutal impacts and Dr. Angelo's anguished yells.

"It has nothing to do with control, they're my family…" Creepie grew frantic listening to the pounding and the fire extinguisher blasts. "They raised me, please I'll do what you want, leave them alone."

"Fool me once, Miss Creecher, shame on you. Fool me twice… well, that'll never happen." He gestured to his men, who lifted their fire extinguishers into both hands, staring down at the two of them with cold glares. "Try not to be too rough with her boys. Our test results will be tainted if you beat her internal organs out of shape." Through the door Creepie heard two men shout in surprise, followed by two dull thumps, though nobody paid attention to that.

Creepie held Skipper closer to her, watching the men step closer and closer, their grip on their weapons tightening as they lifted them into the air. She looked quickly as Skipper's face, then closed her eyes and buried her face in his shoulder, unable to think of a way out, unable to think at all… she just wondered how things could have gone wrong…

A roar cut through the underground research facility, a bloodcurdling shriek that froze the hearts of every human underground except for one, whose head snapped up instantly. The four men surrounding Creepie and Skipper jumped in shock and backed away from the door at the sound of a tremendous impact that caused the metal door to squeal across the floor, barely holding closed. Creepie stared in surprise, then glanced at Skipper, even more surprised to find a smile on his face.

Skipper opened his mouth in a loud imitation of the shriek from before, and instantly Creepie knew what was happening. The men in the room whirled in Skipper in surprise, then yelled in shock and terror as a massive black form slammed into the steel door with such force that the solid metal doorframe split off from the wall, sending the door itself hurtling off to one side to hit the wall with a thunderous crash. Skipper's mother shrieked her fury as her children rushed into the room around her feet, chattering in anger and excitement.

"Get them off! GET THEM OFF!" The four guards brought up their fire extinguishers and opened fire with a stream of thick white foam, blasting back those baby spiders caught in the blast, but they kept coming from every angle while their mother stepped among them, approaching the guard nearest the door with an infuriated roar. "What is this thing!? WHAT IS TH-AAAAAGH!" The guard howled in surprise when the spider slammed head first into him, slamming him into the wall so hard he bounced off and hit the ground limp.

"I'd give up now if I were you guys!" Skipper snickered, but he yelped in surprise suddenly when Creepie felt him ripped out of her arms. "AUGH!"

"Skipper!" Creepie whirled in surprise to see Dr. Gerald quickly rushing toward the door, holding Skipper by the waist.

"This is not going to happen!" The doctor exclaimed as he made it through the door, nearly slipping on the piled of foam that coated the hallway. "The research is too important for this! It must continue, it must!" He turned to race down the hallway out of sight.

"Get back here!" Creepie crouched for a moment, then leapt out of the pile of baby spiders, her wings kicking instantly into high gear. She shot toward the door like a bullet, slamming into the far wall outside, crouching on it on all fours for a brief instant before throwing herself down the hall after Dr. Gerald. Her buzzing wings drowned out whatever he was still rambling about. "Hey! Get back here with him! Your research is over, doctor!"

She raised her hands and made a wild grab once she was close enough, but just before she closed her arms he turned down another hallway. Her miss sent her off-balance and she slammed into the other side of the wall with a dull thud, where she collapsed to the ground in a momentary daze. Driven by anger and fear for Skipper, however, she shook it off in just a moment and rose to her feet again, her wings vanishing against her back in a flurry of wing beats.

She hovered rapidly down the hallway, the buzzing of her wings the only sound in this part of the facility. "Skipper!" Creepie called out with her hands cupped over her mouth. She landed lightly on the ground, giving her wings a rest as she looked back and forth across the empty metal hallways. Her head jerked to one side when she heard the sound of distant footsteps, and she took off again, shooting through the air after them.

She flew through the facility rapidly until her eyes went wide at the sight of Skipper sitting in the middle of a massive, empty room. "Skipper!" She threw herself forward even faster, her wings beating so fast she felt like a moving tornado.

"Creepie! Don't!" Skipper leapt to his feet and put his arms out, but Creepie was already in the room. She tried to stop, but she was far too late to get back to the door before it swung closed behind them, followed by the thick sound of a lock sliding closed. "The door is automated, I think…" Skipper sighed and lowered his arm. "Great, we're trapped until our parents find us…"

"Your 'parents' won't be finding you. I will discover what it is that makes you both tick. Research WILL go on!" Dr. Gerald's voice echoed through the speakers inside the room.

"Research?" Skipper scratched his head. "But you're out there and we're in here. What kind of research can you do on us?" He asked.

Creepie's eyes darted around the room when she heard a soft scraping noise. On the far side of the room she saw a small hole opening in the floor as the metal plates drew back in a circular fashion. Suddenly, she recognized this room.

"Skipper, come on! To the other side of the room!" Creepie grabbed his arm and pulled him along as she ran back toward the door.

"Creepie!? What is it!?" Skipper asked worriedly.

"Just get down!" Creepie shoved him up against the door in a sitting position, the furthest point from the hole, and knelt down in front of him, wrapping her arms around him and spreading her wings as wide as she could. "Don't move."

"Creepie, what's going on?" Skipper's voice wavered as he stared into her eyes, their faces inches apart. She didn't have to answer, however. The bright green glow that illuminated the walls around them moments later told him everything he needed to know. "Creepie wh… what are you doing? Don't-"

"It's okay…" Creepie told him through gritted teeth. "I made it through this once… I can do it again… just stay down…" She gripped his back tightly, her wings beginning to waver. It felt like there were flames creeping up her spine.

"Creepie just…" Skipper raised one of his hands slowly, raising it toward her face. His hand was shaking and he looked like he was about to cry, his eyes brimming with tears. "Just hold on Creepie, I'm sure they'll find us soon… someone will find us…"

"Yeah…" Creepie tried to give him a reassuring grin, but it was difficult to feel anything but pain as the radiation burned into her back and wings. "We'll be fine… as soon as the… police get here. Our parents will find us… they'll turn off the radiation and… we'll go home…"

"Yeah…" Skipper smiled into her face as his palm gently touched her cheek. "We'll go home and everything will be like it was. Better, in fact. Nobody will care what you look like… you can be yourself from now on, all that you are, and nobody will care. Nobody will judge you or… or try to take you away from your parents."

"That sounds really… really nice…" Creepie croaked weakly as the fire moved through her chest, but she choked it down with some difficulty. "And you… and me…?"

"Together…" Skipper smiled as the first tears emerged from his eyes. "No matter what happens to you… no matter what you look like… we can still be together, Creepie."

"That sounds… nice too…" Creepie began to slump against him, feeling his arms closing around her shoulders, holding her close. "All too nice… to be true… like another world…"

"We can make that world, Creepie." Skipper gulped with his cheek pressed against hers, still concealed from the radiation by her spread wings. "We will make it. As soon as we get out of here we can make a world where you don't have anything to hide. We will… I promise." She felt his arms squeezing even tighter as the flames seemed to intensify, growing so hot she believed for a moment she had actually caught fire. "I promise, Creepie… I promise."

TOMORROW: Chapter 15: A Friend in Need


	15. A Friend in Need

Chapter 15: A Friend in Need

The growing night was silent and still, as a gentle breeze whipped through the plains that surrounded the underground facility on the edge of the state. The silver moonlight was shining strong through the few clouds that remained overhead, illuminating the grassy field with a pale glow. It was a peaceful haven of nature, until a long procession of tires ripped across the field with colored red and blue lights flashing. One after another they barreled across the field with sirens blaring, preceded by a faded red Cadillac.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Chris-Alice sat in the passenger's seat of the Cadillac with her face pressed up against the window. "Creepie could need our help right now."

"Believe me, I know. We'll be there in just a few minutes." Maria's foot dropped further against the petal, shoving it to the floor and sending the Cadillac racing across the grassy field. It wasn't much longer before Maria suddenly slammed down on the breaks, sending the vehicle careening forward, its tires ripping through the grassy field leaving four trails of ruined dirt in their wake. They skidded to a stop in front of what appeared to be a sheer rock face.

Without waiting for an invitation Chris-Alice shoved the car door open and popped out onto the grass in front of what appeared to be a pair of startled guards watching them.

"What are you doing here?" The guards reached for their jackets, but froze dead on the spot when the half a dozen police units skidded to a stop right behind the Cadillac and the officers climbed out of their vehicles, all turning their own firearms on the guards. Slowly the men moved their hands away from their jackets and lifted their hands into the air.

"Finishing what I started a long time ago." Maria closed her car door and moved to approach the building, walking between the guards without fear and opening what appeared to be a secret entranceway.

For a moment Chris-Alice watched Maria with her eyes sparkling in admiration, then she whirled to look back at Budge, who seemed to be hesitating in the back seat of the Cadillac. "Come on Budge! Creepie's waiting for us!" Without waiting for him she whirled to rush through the freshly opened entrance into the Cliffside, where Maria was still marching down the hallways with her sharp eyes flitting back and forth behind her glasses.

"Where would they be keeping Creepie?" Chris-Alice asked as they walked down the hallway. "We have to find her, quickly!"

"To be honest, I'm not sure. It's been a long time, and I never had much contact with her after she was born." Maria stopped at an intersection and glanced over her shoulder at the police officers who filed into the facility behind her. "Spread out and search the facility. Take down any grown men you see, and keep a sharp eye out for any children, approximately 13 years old. They may be in need of medical attention, contact me the moment you find them."

"I'll find them!" Chris-Alice whirled and took off down the hallway without warning.

"Chris-Alice! Wait, don't run off on your own!" Maria shouted after her.

"Don't worry! I'll find Creepie! You just get the bad guys!" Chris-Alice rushed down the metal hallways, her footsteps pounding rapidly against the floor as she made a sharp turn down another hallway, cupping her hands around her mouth. "Creepie! Are you here!?" Her voice echoed loudly down the empty hallway. She stopped at an intersection and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Creepie! Skipper! Where are you!?"

Not hearing a response, Chris-Alice took off down one of the hallways at a fast jog, her heart racing in her chest. The hallways seemed strangely empty, though occasionally she could hear a yell or shout from one of the adjacent passages. She didn't hear Creepie or Skipper among the voices, so she decided to ignore them, continuing on her way occasionally letting out a shout of her own in the hope that someone would answer her. The flickering overhead lights did little to bolster her confidence that Creepie was okay, but she refused to give up hope regardless.

"Creepie! AIIEEE!" Chris-Alice gasped when something grabbed her arm as she passed by another intersection. She whirled to see a man holding onto her arm, gripping her to keep her from going anywhere. She was going so fast that for a moment she flew into the air in front of him, then came down to the floor to plant both feet firmly on the metal and yank with all her strength. The man stumbled forward as Chris-Alice reversed the hold, grabbing his arm as she whirled away from him, yanking him up against her back.

"HIYAH!" Chris-Alice yanked his arm down and bent her shoulder, sending the man hurtling over her back to slam into the floor with a heavy thump. Chris-Alice didn't even stop to examine what just happened, instead launching herself over him the moment he hit the ground. Her feet rushed over his body, driving into his forehead, chest, and stomach before she moved past him and continued to rush down the hallway.

Chris-Alice skidded up to a fork in the hallway, looking in each direction. She gasped when she noticed down one hallway a stream of white foam covered the ground, and she could see tiny forms struggling against it almost desperately. She rushed in that direction and soon found that she was looking down at the struggling forms of tiny insects trying to dig their way out of the thick foam all over the walls and floors of the hallway.

Chris-Alice swept some of the foam aside to see a praying mantis lying on the floor. "Mrs. Creecher? Is that you?" Chris-Alice carefully dug through the foam to lift her out of it.

"Chris-Alice." Carolina looked up at her with her large, bright yellow eyes. "I'm glad you finally came. Creepie took off after that man, I'm afraid he'll do something to hurt her. Please, you have to save her."

"Which way did they go?" Chris-Alice asked quickly.

"Down there! He had Skipper hostage! You've got to hurry!" Carolina pointed down the hallway away from them.

"Don't worry, I'll find them!" Creepie leapt over the rest of the foam on the ground and sprinted down the hallway, her feet slapping against the cold metal as she raced through the maze of passages. She practically flew down the hallways with her arms out at her sides, her ponytail flapping in the air behind her. Her eyes darted down every hallway she passed, keeping a sharp lookout for her friend or any more guards who might be roaming the facility.

In the distance she could hear loud bangs echoing through the facility that made her jump in surprise. She glanced down one hallway, suddenly realizing that she had no idea where she was. The maze-like corridors had gotten her completely turned around and, as usual, she'd completely forgotten about her state-of-the-art digital compass. "I'm gonna start gluing that thing to my stomach." She swore softly. "Oh well, Creepie's more important than any directions… if I could just find her."

"Let me help." Chris-Alice whirled instantly and dropped into a crouch with her hands held in striking position. There was a scientist standing in front of her with graying hair and a powerful looking body despite his age, who raised his hands the instant she whirled on him. "Don't worry, I'm a friend."

"Where are Creepie and Skipper? I know they're here." Chris-Alice demanded. "Take me to them right now!"

"Of course! Come with me!" The man turned to rush down the hallway with Chris-Alice following close on his heels. Chris-Alice followed him down a couple more intersections before she saw them, leaning against the thick transparent window limply as a green light shined on them.

"Creepie! Skipper!" Chris-Alice charged to the window and began pounding on it, but got no response even though she was standing right behind them. "Guys, wake up! It's me!" Chris-Alice noticed there was a door in front of her, but there was no handle. She gripped at the hinge to try to pull it open, but to no avail. "How do we get them out of there!?"

"You come with me. That's how." Chris-Alice heart a soft click from right behind her head, followed by something hard pressing against her right temple. She glanced to the side, then felt a rush of cold fearr sweep down her spine when she saw sleek a silver gun pressed against her head. Her body instantly went stiff and she fell silent as the weapon nudged her toward the side. She walked slowly where she was directed, approaching a solid metal door beside the room Creepie and Skipper were in.

The man's hand reached around her head to open the door, then the gun nudged Chris-Alice forward, pushing her inside. Chris-Alice didn't dare turn around or even turn her head as she heard the thick metal door close with a clang, followed by the sound of a heavy lock clicking into place. "Please, have a seat." The man approached her and gestured to one of the rolling chairs beside a line of computers. Beyond the computers was another window, allowing her to look in on Creepie and Skipper's inert forms.

"Why are you doing this…?" Chris-Alice slowly moved over to the chair and sat down. Her voice shivered as she spoke, her eyes darting back and forth between his face and the weapon in his hand. "Creepie just wants to be left alone. Please, leave her alone."

The doctor just ignored her and approached the console, his fingers tapping a few buttons, then sliding across one of the displays. "She's like a sponge… like a cockroach." The man smirked. "Even she can't hold out forever against this level of radiation though." He mumbled softly to himself and looked up through the window at the two kids inside. After a moment he turned his eyes on Chris-Alice again, then plopped into the chair in front of her, laying the gun across his lap. "Are you interested in science, young lady?"

"Not really…" Chris-Alice replied softly.

"Then of course you don't understand." The doctor smiled almost kindly. "Progress takes no prisoners, child. Sometimes for humanity to step forward a couple of sacrifices have to be made. In her case… it's destiny." He gestured to the window. "It's the entire purpose of her existence."

"It can't be. She's my friend." Chris-Alice replied.

"Trust me, young lady. I know why she was created. It was I who created her." The Dr. looked through the window at Creepie again, shaking his head. "I had no idea what she would become when it all first began. Of course, looking at her now, she looks like the future." He smiled absently, then looked at Chris-Alice again.

Her eyes flitted toward the door when she heard a few more bangs, and the sound of distant footsteps in the hallway. "They're going to find us." Chris-Alice looked at the doctor again. "You can't get away from them."

"I wouldn't worry about that. Keeping them at bay is exactly why you're here." The doctor stood up and adjusted his white lab coat. Outside the door Chris-Alice could hear footsteps pounding down the hall toward them. Her eyes flitted from the door to the doctor's weapon as he approached her, putting his free hand on one of her shoulders and standing behind her, keeping her between him and the door.

"There they are!" Chris-Alice heard Maria's voice from outside the door. Through the thick windows she could see Maria pounding for a moment on the glass right behind Creepie and Skipper, though her eyes soon lifted to spot Chris-Alice with the doctor standing behind her. Maria walked along the glass until she disappeared behind the wall, only for her face to reappear on the other side of the small square window in the door to the control room.

The doorknob jiggled for a moment, then Maria looked at them through the window. "It's over, Dr. Gerald. The police are already swarming the place, most of the scientists are already in custody. There's no point in fighting anymore."

"Progress is always worth fighting for, my dear Maria." Dr. Gerald spoke with a ghost of a smile. "It's nice to see you again, even under these circumstances. You set back progress for quite a long time, you know."

"Progress isn't worth it, Gerald. Now open the door and let them all go." Maria frowned darkly and punched at the door, knocking it around on its hinge. "Don't make things even worse for yourself. Your research is over."

Dr. Gerald simply raised the gun to Chris-Alice's temple again, letting the barrel push her head off to one side as Chris-Alice's heart felt like it stopped in her chest. "I think you know where this is going, Maria. You and the officers leave me in peace, and the girl will be just fine."

"You're bluffing." Maria said instantly.

Without warning the gun shifted slightly and a bright flash erupted from the barrel. Chris-Alice shrieked and twitched in surprise as the thunderous bang cut through the room, but the bullet plunged into the floor at her feet without touching her, leaving a deep, black hole the width of her thumb in the metal. She could feel tears pushing at the edges of her eyes as the gun pressed into the side of her head again, her breath coming in deep, stunned gasps.

"If I'm caught now at my age, there will be nothing left for me but prison. Don't underestimate a man who is looking at the end of his life, Maria." Dr. Gerald's voice was calm, but there was a sharp edge to it that made the hairs on the back of Chris-Alice's neck stand on end. "But with her, with the specimen back and a new lab, I can continue my research and revolutionize the world. Medicine, steroids, science itself will be altered forever. It really doesn't matter which government I'm working for, or even if it is a government… the research is all that matters."

"I understand what you want, like I understood back then, but what you're looking for cannot be found by destroying an innocent life. It shouldn't be found that way." Maria replied.

"My freedom or the girl." Chris-Alice gulped when she heard the soft click of the hammer being drawn back on the weapon pressing into her skull. "All I need to hear from you is an answer."

"Don't hurt her." Maria stepped back quickly away from the door, glancing to each side and making a few hand gestures. They heard a small array of footsteps moving away from the door as Maria looked in through the window again. "I hope your research is worth your soul, Doctor."

"It is worth anything it costs." Dr. Gerald replied smoothly. Maria narrowed her eyes, then turned to walk away from the door, leaving Chris-Alice once again alone with the doctor.

There were tears sliding down Chris-Alice's cheeks by the time she felt the pressure on the side of her head ease. The gun moved away from her head and the doctor approached the console again, looking down at the display from before. "Not much longer…" He mumbled under his breath. "Just a matter of minutes now and they'll be ready for transport." The doctor looked up into the next room, watching Creepie and Skipper lying limp against the wall.

Chris-Alice looked back and forth between her friends and the man who was watching them perish. Through the tears in her eyes she could see her friends huddled together, holding one another as if refusing to let go in their final moments. Then when she looked at Dr. Gerald, she saw the man responsible… the man who held all of their lives in his hands. Then she looked down and saw the gun in his hand, the instrument that could put an end to it. The thing that could save her friends… if she could make herself do it.

What was she thinking? She asked herself mentally. Was she really thinking of… this wasn't a video game, this was real life with real people. Yet what else could she do? He showed no signs of letting Creepie and Skipper go… it seemed to her like she had a simple choice. She could sit, do nothing, and watch Creepie and Skipper fade away until nothing was left. Or she could take action, and risk either killing him or being killed herself. The more she thought about it, the more she thought… was it really a choice?

Chris-Alice closed her eyes and gripped the arms of her chair, taking several deep breaths to steady herself. Clear her mind, focus on her objective. That was what her sensei had always told her in her Karate classes. If she could clear her mind of everything except what she wanted to do, then she could do anything. She could reach Dr. Gerald, she could get her hands on his weapon, and she could save her best friend…

Suddenly her eyes snapped open and she launched herself forward, ignoring the tears of fear and worry that flew into the air around her. The chair launched back, alerting the doctor that she'd risen from it, but the gun was only halfway around when she reached him and brought both hands up underneath it, launching it into the air over the console.

Chris-Alice jumped up onto the console and leapt for the weapon, leaping at the same time that Dr. Gerald reached his hand up for it. Chris-Alice's heart stopped beating when her hand touched the pommel, gripping it tightly in her hand with one finger coming down on the trigger, pressing it in. Wait, she thought, which way was the barrel aiming? She hadn't been paying attention, but it was too late now. The weapon erupted in a flash of sparks and a thunderous bang whose sound echoed far through the empty hallways outside the door.

TOMORROW: Chapter 16: When Nightmares End, Dreams Begin


	16. When Nightmares End, Dreams Begin

Chapter 16: When Nightmares End, Dreams Begin

Sharp red and blue lights penetrated her eyelids most uncomfortably, drawing an irritated groan from deep in her throat as she shifted to try to escape them. She felt like she was lying on something strangely springy, very different from her bed back at home. It took some amount of time for her mind to collect itself and remember everything that had happened over the last few hours. When it did come back to her like a tidal wave, her eyes shot open and she sat bolt upright.

"Skipper!" Creepie's eyes darted back and forth in front of her, taking in the scene. She was lying on a gurney out under the stars in front of the rock face entrance into the facility. The flashing lights were coming from a mixture of police cruisers and ambulances parked in a wide cluster around the area, their lights cutting through the night whose only other light was the pale moon that shone from the pitch black sky. She was sitting right in front of one of the ambulances, she now realized.

"Creepie!" Her head jerked to the side when she heard a voice call her name, but she quickly relaxed when she realized it was Maria, approaching with a broad smile on her face. "I'm glad to see you conscious. We were beginning to worry we didn't get to you in time."

"I feel a little light-headed… but I think I'm fine." Creepie reached up to rub her head woozily. "Where's Skipper? Is he okay?"

"He's still asleep, but you shielded him from the worst of it. He should regain consciousness any time now." Maria approached the side of Creepie's gurney and reached up to her shoulder, letting two small figured jump into her hand. "In the meantime, there are two people who've been dying to see you awake." She lowered her hand in front of Creepie.

"Creepie!" A tiny mosquito and praying mantis pair leapt from her palm onto Creepie's chest.

"Mom! Dad!" Creepie smiled and hugged them tightly to her chest. "I'm so glad you're okay. I was afraid those fire extinguishers got to you."

"We're all fine, Creepie. We're just so glad you're safe." Carolina Creecher smiled and looked up at her face.

"Yes, we didn't know what to do when you ran away." Vincent pulled away as well, wiping a tiny tear from one of his blood red eyes. "We were afraid we wouldn't see you again Creepala…"

"Oh, me too…" Creepie hugged them even tighter this time, then released them to let them hop onto her lap. "I can't believe you're here… out in the open with all these people around. Nobody's tried to squish you?"

"Once or twice." Vincent smirked slightly.

"Budge explained to us that these are your parents, and I've been making sure since then that they were treated with the utmost respect." Maria nodded. "Though some people have a hard time getting the message."

"I see. I guess this means there's no more hiding you guys." Creepie looked down at her parents worriedly. "What if they try to take me away from you?"

"You let me take care of all that." Maria replied with a slight smile. "You should focus on your friends and family. Something tells me you're going to need them from now on."

Creepie nodded, then something occurred to her. "You mentioned Budge and Skipper… but where's Chris-Alice? Didn't she come back with you too?"

"Of course she did." Maria replied. "She's just recovering-"

Creepie looked up in surprise, interrupting her. "Recovering? From what? Is she okay?"

"Well, see, she's a very… precocious, girl." Maria smirked slightly. "She ran off on her own the second we entered the facility."

"What!?" Creepie jumped to her feet. "Where is she!? Is she okay!?" Without even waiting for a response Creepie whirled and darted out across the field, weaving between the people and vehicles that stood in her way. She leapt over one of the ambulances, her wings carrying her swiftly through the air until she came down heavily on the other side, her head jerking back and forth. People looked at her in surprise at her sudden appearance, but they didn't look alarmed once they realized who she was.

There were people all around, some scientists were sitting and speaking with the police officers, while the paramedics were treating some of those who had been injured in the conflict. "Chris-Alice? Are you around here?" Creepie looked around, then lifted off the ground again, hovering a short distance into another crowd of vehicles, landing in a crouch and jumping to her feet. "Chris-Alice! You've got to be here somewhere!"

She took off again and flew to another section of the field, her wings pounding at the brisk night air as she hovered over the scene only to come down in another part of the field, her eyes darting around until she saw a sight that made her heart stop beating for a moment. It was a black bag that looked like… no, no it couldn't be her, Creepie realized. The bag was way too large… it couldn't be Chris-Alice, it just couldn't be.

"Creepie?" A voice spoke softly from behind her. Creepie blinked and turned toward the voice, her nerves relaxing when she saw her redheaded friend standing in front of her, holding a thin blanket wrapped around her neck so that it dangled down around her knees. Chris-Alice smiled an uncharacteristically soft smile and approached her with a slow stride, stumbling a bit over the grass. "You're awake. I'm so glad…"

"Chris-Alice. Are you okay?" Creepie walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder to help steady her. "You don't look so good."

"I'm fine, I just feel a little numb. The doctors said it's just shock, it'll pass…"

"Shock?" Creepie blinked. "Chris-Alice, what did you do in there? Maria said you just ran off once they went inside."

"I just… did what I could." Chris-Alice looked up at Creepie. "You're more important, how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine. She said Skipper's already recovered since I absorbed most of the radiation, and the cockroach in me won't go down to that. Are you sure you're okay? You're shaking." Creepie took one of her hands, pulling her hand outward. The blanket shifted slightly, revealing a couple of splotches of red fluid on her canary yellow T-shirt. Creepie looked down at the splotches, then up at Chris-Alice's eyes again. "What happened in there?"

"I…" Chris-Alice hesitated a moment, then gave Creepie another small smile. "I saved you. I did everything I could to save you."

"Chris-Alice, what did you do…?" Creepie realized, feeling something welling up in her heart that she was sure she'd never felt before. "Did you… risk your life for me?"

"I don't consider it a risk." Chris-Alice smiled with a spark of her old energy flaring back into her eyes. "I've told you before Creepie. Hollyrullers always win." Despite her confidence Creepie could see the shadows lingering in her friend's eyes, the remnants of what she'd done. She'd done something she couldn't believe… and she'd done it just for Creepie.

"You idiot…" Creepie pulled her into a tight hug, holding her close against her chest. Creepie squeezed her eyes shut. "You stupid, stupid idiot…" Chris-Alice leaned against her, letting her cheek rest tiredly against Creepie's shoulder. "I won't forget this. Not ever."

Creepie's eyes opened slowly once again, looking over her friend's shoulder to watch Budge and Skipper approaching through the flashing red and blue lights that surrounded them. Creepie's eyes fixed on them, watching Budge supporting Skipper as they walked. The smaller boy was leaning heavily against their good friend, though his face lit up with a bright smile when he saw Creepie looking at him. The Tarantula Boy makeup had been wiped from his face, leaving him looking like his normal self.

Creepie slowly moved away from Chris-Alice, who glanced at her, then followed her gaze toward Skipper. With a smile the redhead patted Creepie's shoulder. "Go ahead Creepie. You deserve it. I'll catch up with you later."

"Thanks, Chris-Alice." Creepie smiled, realizing there was a tear in her eye. She reached up to sweep it away with a sniffle. She tried to think of something else to say, but there was nothing else. Chris-Alice made it clear that she didn't need to say anything else, instead flashing Creepie a quick smile before turning to head off toward the ambulances again. Budge quickly followed suit, leaving Skipper standing in front of Creepie, his shoulders drooping slightly.

"You okay?" Creepie asked softly.

"Yeah… a little dizzy, but the doctors said thanks to you I wasn't exposed enough to have any serious effects from it." Skipper replied. "You saved my life, Creepie."

"Yeah, I did." Creepie walked up to him slowly, staring into his eyes. "Which means you owe me those things you promised me."

Skipper looked at her in surprise, then gave her another gentle, loving smile. "I always keep my promises, Creepie. You'll see."

TOMORROW: Epilogue


	17. Smile You Can't Erase

Epilogue: Smile You Can't Erase

Creepie walked through the doorway into Chris-Alice's house, looking up at the many festive streamers that lined every inch of the ceiling, broken only by the helium balloons whose strings dangled down low enough to touch the top of her head as she passed. Once again her face was plastered all over the walls, but this time the image looking back at her was a face with short blue hairs covering her flesh, with the words "Happy 14th Birthday Creepie Creecher" written across the bottom in large ornate lettering.

"Welcome, welcome, Creepie!" Chris-Alice moseyed up to her and slung one arm around her shoulders with a cheesy grin on her face. "Last time we did this we had the number wrong… well this time we're doing it right, and we're going to be celebrating the real Creepie!" She flung her arm out grandly, gesturing to all of the friends and acquaintances who had gathered once again in the large house, including Budge, Raven, Misery Whispers, Morpheus, Carla, and this time Skipper had shown up as well, wearing a colorful sweater, plain blue jeans, and a broad smile.

_Look into your eyes I see  
__Someone who could  
__Look into my eyes you'll see  
__The one who would  
__Yeah, yeah_

_Are you the one for me?  
__Never felt like this before  
__I can be my own true person in your eyes  
__Now I'm sure_

Raven approached Creepie first, looking her up and down with a steady, thoughtful gaze. Creepie was still wearing the dress Budge had given her for her last birthday party, along with a pair of thick black boots that came up to her calves. "Awesomely gruesome, Creepie." Raven gave her a thumbs up. "You should come back to the Plaid Vapors some time. We could use a member like you."

"I'll think about it." Creepie smiled gratefully and turned toward Carla as she approached, her usual green cheerleading skirt swaying against her hips.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe Chris-Alice was telling the truth." Carla shuddered. "You're like bugzilla now, even grosser and more disgusting than you were before and trust me girl, that is saying something horrible right there. Oh my gosh, are those hairs all over your body? Someone needs a full body wax ASAP because if I have to look at you much longer I feel like I'M going to start growing hair in weird places." Carla crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from Creepie, then shrugged nonchalantly. "Still… you're Creepie and… that's not bad, I guess."

Creepie rubbed her head confusedly. "Thanks…?"

_And now I just hope to enhance you and me  
__Yeah, yeah  
__And it feels so right today, and finally I see  
__Oh, oh_

_I'm gonna be okay  
__I will be alright  
_'_Cuz everything's just right  
__I'm gonna be okay  
__I will be alright  
_'_Cuz my soul's coming together  
__Just like it should  
__Who said it would  
__You said  
__Yeah_

"Hey, come on everybody! It's cake time!" Chris-Alice rushed up behind Creepie and snapped a cardboard party hat onto her head before shoving her toward the dining room, where the table had already been set up with a place for each of them. Creepie sat on one side of the table with Skipper and Budge on either side of her, while Chris-Alice and Carla sat at the ends, and the three members of the Plaid Vapors took the other side of the table from Creepie. Chris-Alice's mother walked out with a broad smile on her face and a cake in her hands, though she seemed hesitant when she saw Creepie.

Creepie watched her distribute the cake among the partygoers, then glanced toward the kitchen door where she saw Chris-Alice's father George watching her with a dirty look on his face. When she looked in his direction he made a cutting motion across his throat. Creepie just smirked and shot back a particularly rude one-finger motion under the table that sent him into a fuming red-faced rage that he couldn't bring into the dining room without alerting his wife and daughter that something was wrong.

Creepie just smiled through the loud bangs and clangs that came from the kitchen.

_And now I'm standing back  
__In a different place  
__With a smile on my face  
__With a smile you can't erase_

_Gotta get it all together  
__Gotta get to going soon  
__Let's run away forever  
__So we can start it soon  
__Yeah_

"So, Creepie." Chris-Alice chatted companionably as the group dug into their cake. "What's it like being… well… you. I don't mean to be rude, but you know it's so interesting."

"Well, it's a lot like being the old me, but with more stuff to control." Creepie made her wings flutter against her back.

"So what made it happen?" Budge asked curiously. "You never went through anything like this before."

"Maria thinks the radiation they doused me with the first time caused some of my dormant bug DNA to activate, triggering a molting process that allowed those physical traits to come through." Creepie replied. "They're not sure, but they think someday I could molt again. Who knows what I'll be then…"

"Hey, I kind of want advance warning on this stuff, so do you think you have any other bug traits we should know about besides the obvious?" Carla asked.

"I don't know. They couldn't do much of an examination of my body without hurting me, so-ACHOO!" Suddenly Creepie sneezed and a large hunk of liquid flew from her mouth onto the cake on her plate. The liquid began to bubble and churn on top of the cake, eating away at it until all that was left was an already digested mass of foodstuff on top of her plate. Creepie grunted for a moment, then plucked the straw out of her drink and began to slurp up the remains of the cake.

7 other plates all slid forward on the table as six voices chimed in "I'm done."

_Walking down this road again  
__As I have before  
__I'm goin' in another direction  
__Expecting less and wanting more_

_And now I'm walking to my own beat  
__Yeah, yeah  
__I'm doing things my own way  
__And finally I'm free  
__Oh, oh_

"You know, does it seem like something's missing here?" Budge asked curiously. Everyone assembled look around slowly, looking at each other for several long moments before most of them just shrugged.

"I'm sure it's nothing important." Carla picked up her glass of milk, trying not to look directly at Creepie, who was still sucking her cake up through a straw. "If it was, we would have remembered it, right?"

**MEANWHILE**

The hospital doors flew open and a little shrieked as she was flung through them, landing face-first on the sidewalk.

"Oof! Hey!" Melanie shouted in a panic. "Don't kick me out, I think I have the ABC's now!"

"Then die from it!" The doctor screamed. "Just leave us alone already!" He turned to stomp inside, leaving Melanie standing alone on the sidewalk.

"Hmph. That is like, so rude. Hey Creepie, Chris-Alice, I did like you asked me to." Melanie blinked and looked around, seeing the sidewalk empty. "Creepie? Chris-Alice?" She sighed. "Oh well, at least I have jingly." She took out her little bell and started the long walk home, giggling as the bell swayed back and forth in her hand. "Teeheehee…"

_I'm gonna be okay  
__I will be alright  
_'_Cuz everything's just right  
__I'm gonna be okay  
__I will be alright  
_'_Cuz my soul's coming together  
__Just like it should_

_Who said it would  
__You said  
__Yeah  
__And now I'm standing back  
__In a different place  
__With a smile on my face  
__With a smile you can't erase_

The party wound on without much to note upon. It felt like any other day to Creepie, which was actually a strange feeling after all she had gone through, how much she had changed. As Creepie watched Raven and Carla exchange verbal barbs while Chris-Alice moderated the proceedings and Budge smiled through it all with his usual jovial attitude, she began to realize that her changes weren't just in her body, though that was certainly a big change. She saw them differently now, knowing for sure how they felt about her. Chris-Alice had risked her life for Creepie, her friendship was without question. For the first time since she'd emerged from Dweezwold almost two years ago, Creepie felt completely comfortable.

She found herself with an uncharacteristically constant smile on her face as the party wound on, which only grew bigger on those occasions when she locked eyes with Skipper. He stayed close to her side all evening but said little to her, instead allowing her to come to grips with everything as it was now. Even if it was for the better, it was still a big change going from what she had known before to what she had now.

But toward the end of the evening, when she was ready, Creepie moved her hand over to slip her fingers into his holding him tightly. With a silent, shared glance, the two of them turned away from the party to seek shelter in one of the back bedrooms.

_I'm walking  
__walking to my beat  
__Shuffling my feet  
__I'm walking  
__walking to my beat  
__Shuffling my feet  
__Down the street  
__Just like it should  
__Who said it would  
__You said  
__Yeah_

"Happy Birthday, Creepie." Skipper told her in a gentle voice.

"Thanks." Creepie smiled. "For way more than the birthday party."

"I told you didn't I? I always keep my promises." Skipper spoke with a straight face, not a hint of nervousness on his cheeks. Creepie smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her forehead lightly against his.

There wasn't another word spoken, lost in a gentle kiss that said more than any other words possibly could have. Even as they kissed deep in her mind Creepie knew that despite all she had already gone through there was still so much left to deal with in the future. Things to learn, things to do, things to discover. She knew some of them would be as pleasant as this kiss, while others would be as horrible as the night she'd been chased through the rain. But she would take them all as they came, face them with her head held high no matter what she looked like, no matter what the world thought. She would continue to learn, to grow, and someday she would be able to really spread her wings.

After all, that's what growing up is all about. Even when you're growing up Creepie.

_And now I'm standing back  
__In a different place  
__With a smile on my face  
__With a smile you can't erase_

THE END  
(Song "Smile You Can't Erase" by Samantha Lombardi)


End file.
